Resurrected

Ethan's POV

“It’s Cato,” I said, scared out of my mind, “he’s got Alex.”

“Well then I’m going to murder him,” growled Tommy. I was now doubly scared out of my mind. I was scared of Cato, but I had never seen Tommy so calmly feral.

He started walking so fast towards the Armory that I had to jog to keep up with him.

“I mean, that’s good, Tommy,” I said, trying to think of something else to say to slow him down, “just, you know, keep angry and all that. But maybe, if you could hold off that rage until we get to Cato, that’d be great. I mean, we have no idea of finding him.”

“Where else would he be but Mt. Othrys?” Tommy asked, calming down and slowing his pace to a gallop; but his blue eyes still gleamed with anger.

“I…yeah, I agree,” I said.

It sounded stupid, but we had both practically grown up with Cato. He was an apprentice, top of the class, just waiting in line to become Kronos’ top officer. Then, the war happened. He had killed a lot of good demigods, but they had lost. Cato apparently went into a rage, vowing to bring Kronos back. It all made sense that he would retaliate after another failed plan to bring his master back.

“So,” Tommy started, a lot more calm now, but thinking deeply, “if we are going on a quest to kill the guy—”

“Rescue Alex,” I corrected him as we reached the Armory.

“Right,” he said unconvincingly, “if we’re going on a quest to rescue Alex and kill Cato, who are we bringing? Two ain’t enough to kill that guy, especially with the entourage of beautiful Tartarus maniacs that freak has hanging around him.”

Tommy looked really mad, but I couldn’t help smiling. He looked cute when he was angry. He realized why I was smiling and eased up, smirking a little. But then, another voice, female and familiar, said,

“Charlie or I’d go, but with our…current situation, that looks improbable to say the least.”

We both turned to face the voice at the Armory door, and found Silena smiling at us. Charlie had his arm around her shoulder protectively, and I realized that everyone who we had been hanging out with were all standing there. They walked in as Percy started the conversation.

“You two should definitely go,” he said, “but three is the optimal number for a quest.”

He phrased the statement like a proposition, telling us that they didn’t necessarily want to be picked, but that we were in charge of choosing who we took along. One by one, they stated their own cases as to why they didn’t need to go. Charlie and Silena were expecting, Percy and Annabeth were too tired emotionally after Tartarus, Jason and Piper had to attend some stuff at Camp Jupiter, but then, some unlikely volunteers spoke up.

The first was Will Solace, whom I hadn’t even seen walk up.

“I’ll go,” He offered plainly, grabbing his bow and quiver of arrows from a golden locker in the back of the Armory.

Then, another voice I hadn’t seen show up spoke. Nico di Angelo.

“Hades, no!” He said, putting his hand on Will’s chest as he tried to leave the room. I thought that Nico was being sweet, trying to protect his friend. Then I realized that there was a lot more to their gazes. Even though Nico was younger than Will by two years, he looked a lot more invested in the son of Apollo than just friends.

As I realized that they were probably in a relationship, I had to prevent myself from smiling so hard that I probably looked constipated. But before I could respond, Clarisse La Rue, whom I had seen walk in, stepped forward, looking straight at Tommy.

“Doyle, I owe you one for the Hellhound during that Capture the Flag game. I’ll go.”

Tommy opened his mouth to accept Clarisse’s offer, but Will Solace said,

“Aw, seriously? Alex is a really good friend of mine and I feel so bad for not saving—”

“That wasn’t your fault!” Tommy said to Will, and Nico tried to get a word in, saying,

“Will! You’re not—”

“Actually,” Annabeth pondered, interrupting Nico, “Will’s experience could be useful on this quest. Besides, you two need some longer range weaponry for both attack and defense. I personally wouldn’t mind Will going.”

“See?” Will said to Nico, who was pushing him back harder now.

“Ugh, no! Will, I forbid you to go on this quest. No!” Nico was close to tears now, and Silena’s brow was furrowed, a mixture of confusion, curiosity, and anticipation.

“Enough!” Clarisse shouted, her voice silencing everyone, “You two, enough of your marital arguments, you sound like my mortal foster parents! Annabeth, I’m sorry, but Will has to stay here. One, I’m not letting three guys go on this quest just so they can be brash and stupid. Two, obviously Nico wants his boyfriend to—”

Tommy sighed loudly as Silena jumped up, screaming in joy.

“YES! I KNEW IT! SUCK IT, DOYLE!”

“Woah!” Tommy said, laughing, “Didn’t think you’d get that excited about it, jeez! It’s only a two-hundred drachma bet!”

“TWO HUNDRED DRACHMAS?” I asked him, utterly blown away that he would risk that much money.

“Well, yeah,” He said sheepishly, “I bet Silena after Charlie lost his amnesia that Nico wasn’t in a relationship with anyone. I just lost that bet.”

“Two hundred drachmas?” I asked again, still amazed with a smile on my face.

“Yes!” Silena answered, “Two hundred golden coins, enough to buy a kick-ass crib and—”

“Woah, there, Silena!” Charlie laughed, “Hold your horses. I’m sure we can wait until the time’s right to spend the two hundred. We’re not due for another eight months.”

“EVERYONE SHUT UP!” Nico screamed, and the temporarily, the floor shook. We all went dead quiet, suddenly fearing for our lives.

“Are we clear,” Nico asked in a vulnerable tone, “that will is not going on this quest, and that Clarisse is joining Ethan and Tommy in their search for this Cato kid?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said, a lot more timidly than I wanted to.

Nico promptly took his hand off of his boyfriend’s chest and stormed out of the armory, causing Will to grin wildly as he chased after the small son of Hades.

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Silena said quickly, “but they are so cute!”

No one responded for about five seconds, and then everyone started laughing. Silena joined in and we all crammed through the door to watch the two boys running. Will finally caught up to Nico under a pine tree by the sword arena.

The son of Hades turned around as Will grabbed his hand, the son of Apollo still grinning hard. They exchanged words quickly, and Nico’s shoulders relaxed. Will leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, causing Nico’s cheeks to flush red, as well as Silena to let out a loud,

“AWW!”

Then, Will took Nico’s hand and led him back to us, walking towards the two. We pretended like we hadn’t seen what had just happened.

“Okay,” Will said cheerfully, “so, Nico has agreed to help you three out. He’s gotten a lot stronger and is currently healthy enough to shadow-travel you guys close to San Francisco, if that’s okay with you.”

“Great,” Clarisse said, thanking Nico with a grim face, “we leave at sunrise tomorrow. I'm going to kill this guy, whoever he is.”

Notes

So, *Queen baseline plays* another one bites the dust. Another chapter in the books. I hope this isn't filler for you guys, but I wanted to have a happy chapter after an intense one.

Enjoy,
Grafon