The Light and Dark in Italy

Will had thought that they were over the whole, “I don’t care about anyone other than Hazel” phase.

Apparently not.

Will decide to go to the Apollo cabin and lay down for a while. Knowing that, if Nico came after him, he would go to the infirmary.

Will got to the cabin and went to his bunk, where he promptly face-planted his pillows. He realized, as soon as he did this, that he hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before do to Capture-the-Flag. Because of this, Will fell asleep nearly instantly.

When Will opened his eyes, he wasn’t where he had fallen asleep. He looked around and saw that he was under a tree in a fairly green meadow with Nico next to him, sleeping. He shook
Nico awake to ask him where they were, when the scene changed.

He was now standing in what looked like Italy under the shade of another large tree. But, something was off. For one, the skies were the color of iron and the sun couldn’t be seen. Will searched for Nico, nut couldn’t find him. He ran everywhere searching for the son of Hades. Will stopped in his tracks as he saw Nico. Will’s face grew into the biggest grin he had ever made and ran toward him. In slow motion, he saw the skies become much, much brighter and a stream of yellow shoot from his hand. Will glanced down words quickly before he looked up. What he saw made him break down in tears. Nico’s limp body crumped on top of Will. Will didn’t know what happened. He looked at his hand and saw that his hand was glowing with sunlight. His eyes got wide as he realized that an unknown power had just murdered the love of his life.
His unknown power.

Will’s eyes snapped open as he was being shaken awake. His face was wet with tears and his voice was hoarse as if he had been screaming for a long time. Lou Ellen and Cecil were staring at him, tears in their eyes.

Hoarsely, Will said, “Why are ya’ll crying?”

“Will, you were screaming so much in your sleep that we brought you to the infirmary. We thought you were dying!” Lou Ellen cried.

“Where’s Nico?!” Will said, realizing that he needed to make sure Nico was alive.

“He’s in his cabin. Said something about needing to rethink everything that he says?” Cecil told him

Will was about to stand up, when someone burst through the infirmary door. Will looked up and, seeing who it was, jumped up and tackled the heavy-breathing boy that was standing at the door. After they both got up, Will and Nico hugged once more.

Everyone looked at them with confused faces. Nico fixed that easily with the flip of a certain finger.

“Will, I need to tell you something.” Nico said urgently.

“What?” Will said, grabbing Nico’s shoulders and leading him out the door into the dimming light of afternoon.

“After you had run off, I went back to my cabin to think about what I said. I’m sorry I said that. I...these past two years have been amazing, but before then I was always alone and I still feel like I need to protect myself. After I finished my thoughts, I fell asleep and had a dream.

I was in Italy, for some reason, and you were there too. We were sitting under a tree talking when the dream shifted. The sky was now dark as iron and the sun could hardly be seen. I looked all around me and couldn’t find you at all. When I finally did, I smiled and ran towards you. In slow motion, I saw the sky darken and a circle with about a 3 meter diameter opened up beneath you and slowly ate you, causing you a ton of pain. I tried and tried to pull you up, but I couldn’t. And that was when I woke up.”

Will watched Nico’s face as Nico told him about the terrible dream. Nico’s face contorted from apologetic to scared frighteningly fast. Will once again pulled the half-a-year-younger boy into an embrace.

“Nico, I have something to tell you. I had a dream a little bit like yours except I accidentally killed you with this weird beam of light that shot out of my hand.” Will told Nico, whose eyes widen in shock.

“Will, this is really bad. It would be bad for one of us to have a dream like that, but both of us means there’s something up. Come on! We need to talk to Chiron!” Nico said, grabbing Will’s arm and running towards the Big House.
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When they got to the Big House, Chiron was sitting in his office reading a book. Chiron looked up and, noticing their panicked faces, got out of his wheelchair and asked what was wrong.

“Chiron, wehadaboutthesamedreamexceptwiththeotherperson! Does-“Nico started, slurring the words together with panic.

“Breathe, Nico. Now, what were you trying to tell me?” Chiron said calmly.

“We had a dream about the other dying by our hand. In the exact same setting!” Nico and Will said together.

Chiron’s eyes got wide and he stopped moving. He soon came back to his senses and trotted out of the Big House, Nico and Will tailing behind

“Clarisse! Gather all the head counselors! We need to have a meeting. NOW!” Chiron yelled at Clarisse, who immediately got up and ran to the nearest cabin.

“Will, Nico. Go Iris Message everyone at Camp Jupiter! We need to have a meeting!”

Will and Nico ran into the meeting room and started Iris messaging the seven, Reyna, and Calypso.

“Hey, guys. We have an emergency meeting and we were told to Iris message ya’ll.” Nico told them.

Just then, Chiron galloped in and sat at his place, everyone following behind. As Travis and Conner got out the EZ Cheese, crackers, and Coke, everyone sat down to Chiron clearing his throat.

“I have called you all here today to tell you about Nico and Will’s dreams. They both had the same dream: That the other died at their hand.” As he said this, everyone started whispering amongst themselves.

“Now, Nico, Will, tell us the exact setting of your dreams.”

“We were sitting up against a trunk of a tree with a green meadow that spread out in front of us, in the distance there were some buildings.” Will told them.

“We were in Italy. Not too far from where I grew up, actually.” Nico confirmed

“In most circumstances, I would tell you to stay away from Italy like the plague, but I feel as though ya’ll need to go to Italy.” Rachel said. “I’ve been getting dreams that are like mini visions. It was like the oracle was speaking to me through my dreams.”

“But, that’s impossible. The oracle hasn’t spoken since the Giant war. Why would it speak to
you now?” Chiron asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Great. ANOTHER minor prophecy! We had been having a nice 2 years of no prophecies, but, of course, they’re back again!” Percy shouted, highly agitated.

“Percy! Calm down! This isn’t a prophecy about you!” Annabeth shouted at him.

“No, but I don’t want Nico and Will to go through what I did!”

“Percy, I’m pretty sure Nico and I will be fine. We’re only going to Italy and back.” Will said, hoping his face didn’t reflect the complete lack of courage he felt.

“Yes, but you had a dream about killing each other! So you need to be extremely careful. Hazel, will you shadow travel us all over to Camp Half-Blood?” Percy asked through the Iris message.

“Sure.” She said quietly, obviously worried about Nico.

They all simultaneously threw their hands through the Iris message only to appear in the meeting room within a couple minutes.

“Why didn’t you just do this in the first place?” Will asks, thoroughly confused.

“Because then I didn’t have anything to say to you privately.” Percy told him.

“Why do you need to talk to me privately?” Will said, worried that Percy was going to hurt him.

“Just come with me.” Percy told him, grabbing Will’s arm and dragging him off.

“Will, I’m going to say this once and once only. If Nico gets hurt in ANY way, I will personally make you wish you were dead. Nico is like my little brother and I can’t stand to see my friends hurt, let alone family. Now, let’s get back in there before they start to wonder.” Percy told him, anger boiling in his eyes.

Will was highly frightened of what Percy would do if Nico got hurt. Of course, Will would never hurt Nico, but he was going to be extremely protective of him now.

Once they were back in the meeting room, Rachel told them, “Nico, Will, while ya’ll are in Italy, will you also go to Delphi and fix the oracle?”

“How can I do that? I have no fighting experience.” Will said.

“You will leave in a week. Will, I would advise you to pick up some training.” Chiron said, dismissing the meeting.

“Will, may I please talk to you.” Hazel said, staying behind.

“Of course.” Will said, sitting back down. “What do you want to talk about?”

As soon as everyone had left, Hazel turned around, a look of pure evil on her face. “If ANYTHING happens to Nico, you will die. The night that you get back you will wake up to the pain of being crushed to death.”

The only reason was so frightened was because the person who was saying this, was usually the nicest person he knew. Now, she was m a look that sent him to the depths of Tartarus.

“I swear on the River Styx I will protect Nico with my life.” Will said.

“Will, you do know what will happen if you break that right?” Hazel said, worriedly.

“Yes. I know that if I break this, I will suffer a fate worse than death. I would never do anything to hurt Nico and now I can’t.” Will told her. He had always felt the need to protect Nico. Now he had a reason to. She then left after giving one more evil glance.

Will started to get up once more, but was yet again interrupted by another visitor. It was Frank.

“Hey so I heard that Hazel gave you a rough time. Well, I’m here to comply with that. Nico is like my little brother, and is Hazel’s, so I’m telling you, if you don’t protect Nico I will give you the wrath of Mars.”

“I swear on the River Styx that I will protect Nico with my life.”

“Good.” Frank said leaving Will, yet again, alone.

Once again, someone came into the room. Will looked up to see both Jason and Reyna.

“Let me guess, you are here to threaten me about not hurting Nico?” Will was starting to get really annoyed with these people.

“Yes, we are. I hold one of Nico’s biggest secrets,” Jason started and letting Reyna finish. ”and he is like a little brother to me. So, whatever Percy, Hazel, and Frank told you, I guarantee ours will be ten times worse. If anything happens to him, we will have you damned to Tartarus, brought back from Tartarus, electrocuted, brought back from the dead, eaten alive, brought back from the dead, then ruin your life making you wish you were dead again.”

Will was terrified. He was curious as to know if he would die or not. He knew he was going to protect Nico, but he feared that if he died while protecting him, Nico would get hurt and then people would resurrect him just to kill him in painful ways and put him in the Fields of Punishment. His face drained of all color and he managed to get, “I swear on the River Sty-” out before passing out.

(A/N: Sorry if it sounded pretty bad. I didn't have time to edit very much because of grandparents coming into town. Please comment and give me constructive criticism for the next chapter!?

Notes