I. Olympus: Like Hell, Only Worse.
Finally, when everyone else had been called forward and addressed, Nico stood alone. Hades was silent, but Zeus called him forward. Nico stepped forward and knelt before the Olympians. "A son of Hades," Zeus said disdainfully. "Your kind should have been exterminated decades ago. It is only through your father's lies that you live. Do you have any idea what trouble your siblings caused?" "Yes," Nico replied. "Would you mind telling us?" Zeus asked. Nico took a breath. "Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Vladimir Lenin caused World War II, committed countless genocides, caused the Holocaust, and are some of the most infamous men in history. Napoleon Bonaparte led forty thousand soldiers to their deaths in an attack on Russia. Vlad the Impaler impaled a lot of people and was gross and cannibalistic, which is why he's the original vampire. Genghis Khan attacked China and united the Mongols." He looked sullenly at Zeus. "Am I missing anybody?" Zeus scoffed. "Those are just the famous ones. You have no idea how many serial killers and psychopaths are your siblings. Not to mention Caligula!" "Okay, for the record, Caligula was Roman. What's your point?" "My point," Zeus said, "is that the majority of Hades' children we let live grow up to terrorize the world. Why should we take that risk with you?" "Because I'm not going to commit genocide, I'm not certifiably insane yet, I'm definitely not cannibalistic, and I promise not to attack Russia in the winter. Is that good enough for you? Children of Hades can do more than just kill. Napoleon wrote the Napoleonic Code, which is the basis for the modern American Constitution. Hitler wanted to go to art school before he became infamous. It's only because of Hades' training that he was so messed up," Nico protested. "How do we know you won't turn against us in the future?" Zeus countered. "I already fought for you in two wars! I convinced Hades, one of the most dangerous and easily annoyed gods, to fight in the Titan War! Maybe if you treated demigods with respect we would be loyal to you. Instead, all you've done is given us more reasons to resent you. And yet we fight for what is right. We fight for our camps, and we fight for each other. I'm not sure if any of us are fighting specifically for you. As long as you're on the side of the camps, I'll fight with you." Zeus exploded. "YOU DARE INSULT THE INTEGRITY OF THE GODS?!" Nico's voice was icy. "You're deciding whether or not to kill me. I'm saying you don't value mortal life, and you play favorites in your family, Uncle." Zeus turned to Hades. "After all his training in the Underworld, Hades, you still haven't taught this boy manners! What did he learn?" He waved his hand carelessly toward Nico. "Well? What, if not manners, did you learn?" Nico's glare was deadly, but his voice was still calm. "I learned to fight with multiple weapons, and with martial arts. I learned countless ways to kill, and which ways are the fastest, cleanest, and most efficient. I learned to summon the dead and bend them to my will, and strategy, offensive and defensive." "Zeus rolled his eyes. "Oh, is that all?" Nico thought for a second. "Unless you count geometry and how to play soccer, that's it." Zeus sighed, and turned to his brother. "Sorry, Hades, but this one is too dangerous. Even if he doesn't use his powers against us, he's too rude and annoying to be spared. You don't want a puny gay one anyway, right? It's no big loss." A murmur rippled through the crowd of demigods watching the scene. Nico went red and stared straight at the ground. To his credit, Hades looked genuinely concerned. "My son is strong. He has proven himself so. For three years, I mistreated him, and he still fought for us. He risked his life in Tartarus and by bringing the Athena Parthenos to the camps. Of all demigods, he has seen the most death, but he does deserve life," Hades said firmly. Zeus considered this statement, and came to a decision. "We'll put it to a vote, then." He waved his hand and a silver handgun appeared ten feet in front of Nico. "Anyone who thinks this demon spawn should be killed will walk up and shoot it. Anyone who would spare it will simply walk past the gun." Zeus got up and stood with the gun at his feet. "Stand up!" he barked to Nico. Nico stood. Zeus looked at Jason, who was shaking his head and silently pleading 'No!' Zeus stretched out his arm and the gun flew up to his hand. Nico held his threatening gaze calmly. He stood tall and didn't waver, even when Zeus aimed the gun. "It's fitting," Nico told him, "that you should be the one to want me dead. I mean, you already killed my mother. You tried to kill Bianca and I as well, and she's dead now too. Go ahead and finish what you started!" he spat. "No! Nico!" Hazel protested from the crowd and tried to run forward. After three steps, however, she ran into an invisible wall. She hit it with her fists. Zeus chided her coldly, "This does not concern you, daughter of Pluto." He looked back down the barrel of the gun at Nico and pulled the trigger. The shot blasted across the room and echoed, along with Hazel's scream. There was a searing pain in Nico's left shoulder, and his hand immediately went to the wound. Almost doubled over, tears came to his eyes, and he gritted his teeth. He was vaguely aware of movement. When he looked back up, Poseidon was standing with the gun at his feet. He looked over at Percy, who was doing what Jason had been doing and shaking his head 'no.' Poseidon looked at Nico with a little pity, and sat back down. Hera stepped forward next. She looked Nico in the eye and picked up the gun. He took his hand from his first wound and stood as tall as he could. She aimed for his other shoulder and shot. A tear ran down Nico's face and blood seeped from the punctures. Hazel was crying and hugging Frank. Hephaestus took his vote. Leo shook his head, and Hephaestus sat back down without shooting. Apollo did the same, this time looking for Will Solace's decision. As Apollo sat back down, Nico locked eyes with Will, who was grimacing and looking at him with anxiety. Nico looked away to see Ares step up eagerly to the gun, and pick it up very casually. Without missing a beat, and without consulting his kids like the other gods, he shot Nico in the right side of his chest. By now, Nico started to feel feverish from blood loss. He shivered. Black spots danced in his vision, and he coughed up blood. There was so much blood, on the floor, on his hands, on his shirt, and on his face, everywhere except in his veins. He tried to focus as the gods passed. Athena passed without shooting. Aphrodite and Artemis did the same. Demeter stepped up to the gun. She spoke seemingly to herself. "I'd really rather turn him into a flower, but..." She picked up the gun. "I suppose this will do. Don't cheat on my daughter, Hades." Nico straightened up one last time and stood with dignity. He didn't even hear the shot, just felt a numbing pain in his leg that made him off-balance and made him fall to his knees. Hermes passed. Dionysus picked up the gun. He inspected it, and made a comment to Zeus. "It takes so much power to rebuild sanity. Unfortunately, it doesn't take too much to break it. This boy has been through more torture today alone, and especially throughout his life, than anyone here could bear, and he's still fighting. Even I can't ignore that, and you shouldn't either." He gingerly opened the barrel and dumped the bullets out. He closed it, and laid it at the edge of the pool of blood. Zeus glowered at Nico while Dionysus took a seat on his throne again. "Eight to four. The votes are in your favor today," he growled. "You may live, if you don't bleed out first." Nico was short of breath. He could barely see. He pushed off the ground to stand on his one good leg. "You know one other thing I learned from Hades in the Underworld?" Nico asked Zeus, and then coughed up more blood. He stood straighter than ever and held his head high. "Pain tolerance. Go to Hell." He walked as normally as he could out of the throne room, trying not to limp. He heard running footsteps behind him as he stepped down the first stair with his bad leg. His knee buckled- and everything went black.

II. The Wonders of Morphine.
Something was funny, but he wasn't sure what. He saw red as sunlight lit up his closed eyelids. Too much red. He wished he could see blue, or yellow. Percy liked blue. Percy liked Annabeth. He became aware of a bed and sheets around him. Will liked yellow. Even green would be nice to see. Percy's eyes were green. But Percy liked blue. Percy liked Annabeth. Will's eyes were blue. But Will liked yellow. Red was too violent. Black was depressing too. Brown was okay. Hazel's eyes were hazel. That was sort of funny. He opened his eyes and looked around the room. He was back in the infirmary. Why was Nico there? He'd already spent his three days recovering. Did he fall, or get hurt in training? He couldn't figure it out. He tried to get up, but found he couldn't move much. People entered the room. He looked over to see the Seven of the prophecy and Will stand around the bed he was in. "How are you doing, Nico?" Percy smiled. Nico was confused. "I'm fine. What happened?" "What happened?! Are you kidding me?" Leo laughed. "You are anything but fine! What happened, is that you got-" "Wait," Will interrupted him. "I need to test his mental state. He might have short-term memory loss." He turned to Nico. "What is today's date?" Nico looked at Leo. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Leo grinned, answering, "Yeah, change of plans." "The date, Nico," Will repeated. "Um, August...fifth?" "Of what year?" "I don't know," Nico said, frowning. "Do you know your name?" "Yes." Will waited for him to continue, but he didn't. "Then can you tell me?" he finally said. "Niccolò Di Angelo." Will pulled out a form and a pen to fill it out. "What's your middle name and birthday?" "Uh, my middle name is Michael. I don't know my birthday." Leo made a funny face. "Who doesn't know their own birthday?" he asked, half joking. "The same person who's memories were washed away in the Lethe when he was ten," Nico retorted. Will put down the form, asking,"Okay, Niccolò, what's the last thing you remember?" It seemed like a silly question, but Nico gave his honest answer. "I remember you asking me what the last thing I remember is." There was a beat of silence, broken by Leo. "Was that a joke?" Leo asked in awe. "Was that an actual joke, from the kid who never smiles?" Will sighed. "He's on morphine for the pain, Leo. His mind would be fuzzy even without the memory loss and concussion. " he turned back to Nico with patience. "What's the last thing you remember before you woke up today?" Nico thought. There was those three days in the infirmary, and then getting released despite Will telling him he wasn't ready, and then... "Wasn't today supposed to be the field trip to Olympus?" "Bingo!" Leo muttered. "Did I miss it? How did it go?" Leo seemed extra happy today, especially for someone who Nico had thought was dead yesterday. Nico looked at him, and saw he was standing by a girl in a white shirt and jeans. She had her hair braided, and was looking at the medical equipment as if she'd never seen anything like it in her life. Leo took out a small cube he'd been building for the last few minutes, and put it near Nico's ear. "Maybe this will ring a bell." He pressed a button, and a sound exactly like a gunshot blasted off two inches away from Nico's eardrum. "Ahhh!" He yelped and sat up extremely quickly, and all he could see was the barrel of the silver gun. The room came back into focus. "I remember," he said breathlessly, and his hand went to his first wound. He looked down and saw the I.V. and tubes in his arm, and that the wounds were bandaged. Once again, all his clothes except for his boxers were gone. There was a tourniquet on his leg. He pulled the sheet up to cover more of his body, and realized sitting up was making him a little dizzy. "You said I'm on morphine?" "Yes," Will answered him. "Not too much, but enough to numb you." He turned to Leo. "You shouldn't have done that! Loud noises make concussions worse!" "It worked on his memory, though!" "His memory is what's going to give him nightmares," Will muttered. Nico rubbed the sand from his eyes. "Wait, okay. I know I got shot four times, and apparently I'm on morphine now, but how did I get a concussion? I don't remember that." Hazel spoke up from the side of the bed. She sat down next to him. "You passed out from blood loss at the top of the stairs on Olympus. Jason caught you, though." "If he...caught... me, then how did I get the concussion?" Jason coughed. "I- you may have fell down one or two flights before I caught up with you," he said. "Nico, I had no idea that my father was like that. I can't believe he did that. I'm so sorry." Nico gave him a puzzled look. "Why are you sorry?" "Because my dad tried to kill you, and destroyed your family!" "But you didn't. You didn't do anything like that. You tried to stop him, and you kept me from falling down the stairs and dying. Thank you for that. You have no reason to be sorry at all." Jason gave him a smile. "On the other hand," Nico continued, "I really hate Zeus." Percy grinned. "Don't we all!" He asked Will, "So did the blood thing work?" Nico looked at him. "What blood thing?" Will said, "Percy donated blood for a transfusion. It was completely successful." That surprised Nico. "You donated blood?" "Yeah," Percy smiled. "Apparently I am your type after all; O-negative!" Nico smiled. "Thank you, Percy." "No problem," he replied. "I'm glad you're alive." "Thanks." "Okay, one more thing," Leo pitched in, smirking. "Your full name is 'Niccolò Michael Di Angelo?'" Nico sighed. "Yes." "Okay. Just curious." Will got up, saying, "Not to break up this party, but it has to break up. I have to test Nico's injuries, and then he still needs to rest." Annabeth led the way for the demigods. "Okay, Will. We'll leave. Get well soon, Nico." "Thanks. But one more thing, Percy?" he said as they were leaving. "Yeah?" Percy answered. "If I remember correctly, Zeus told all the gods and everyone in camp that I was gay. Right?" Nico asked him. He answered, "Um, yeah. He did." "Okay. I just wanted to clarify that. Thanks again for the blood." "Yeah, anytime." Percy left with Annabeth and the others. Nico watched Will organize his medical kit, and pull out certain tools. His blond hair hung over his eyes a bit, and he kept sweeping it away. After a while, Will commented, "You get hurt faster than I can heal you. You just got out of here two days ago." Nico was silent. "I mean, it's not that I don't want to see you," Will continued, "but for your sake, I'd rather you be healthy and unharmed." "At least it's not too bad," Nico ventured. "Not too bad?! Oh my Gods, Nico." Will looked up to the ceiling like, 'What am I going to do with this idiot?' "As a doctor-in-training, I'm supposed to keep my patients calm about their injuries, so they don't have panic attacks, but with you? 'No, I'm so tough! Four gunshots? That's not too bad! Decapitated? No, I'm fine, just give me a minute to find my skull!'" He took out a light and turned it on. "Okay, keep still and look at me." He shined the light in Nico's left eye. His right eye focused on Will's concentrating face. Will shined the light next in Nico's right eye, and when he was done the image of the light still burned in his vision. Will looked a little worried, and made a note on his medical form. "All I meant was that I've been hurt worse before, and no matter how bad things are, they can always be worse." Will laughed. "I had no idea you were such an optimist." Nico couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, so he didn't reply. Will ran some more tests on him. With some help, Nico stood up and walked to a machine that measured his weight and height, and then Will checked his blood pressure. All the while, Will made marks and notes on his paper. After lying back down, Nico was asked to answer a list of questions. "I need to assess your mental capabilities and stability," Will explained. "First question: have you ever taken or abused drugs?" "Not unless you count that morphine you gave me." "Okay," Will made a note. "Next question: do you or have you ever had an eating disorder?" "Um... What would define 'eating disorder?'" "Well tell me your eating habits, and I'll tell you if it qualifies or not," Will said with a concerned gaze. "I used to eat a really small amount, sometimes I was in the Underworld for weeks without anything except pomegranates and cereal, and a couple weeks ago I didn't eat or drink anything for ten days. But it was never on purpose. If I had had the option of food, I would have taken it. I've grown resistant to the lack of nutrition, and it doesn't affect me as much." Will paused for consideration before he started writing again. Nico looked over at the paper to see that it was all in Ancient Greek. "Question three: do you have any allergies?" "Not that I know of." "Question four: have you ever experienced depression?" "Yes." "How frequently?" Nico laughed dryly. "It never seems to stop." "And how long have you had this problem?" "Three to four years," Nico answered. Nico tried to decipher Will's notes, but his handwriting was loopy and Nico could only see it upside down. "Have you ever experienced suicidal thoughts or actions?" "Yes," he admitted. Will's eyes were accusing and filled with sadness, as if Nico had betrayed him. "Describe when and what they were." His voice was tight but controlled. Nico answered, "Two or three years ago, I-I tried to cut my wrists. Hades kept telling me to kill myself, because I would be doing everyone a favor. I'd finally met my dead mother, but she disowned me when she found out I'm gay. She called me a demon, and told Bianca to kill me." Nico's voice was hoarse. "Bianca refused, so I decided to be loyal to our parents one last time. I woke up with the scars, but I didn't die." Will was silent for a long time. He made a few halfhearted notes. "I'm better now, though," Nico reassured him. "I'm less depressed usually, and I'm never going to be suicidal again. With everyone else who'd like to kill me, it seems selfish to take that away from them," he added dryly. Will glanced at him with a sad smile. "Alright, last question: have you ever been diagnosed with any mental disorders or disabilities?" Nico started counting on his fingers. "Let's see... ADHD, dyslexia, and one time I had multiple personality disorder because this Underworld demon was trying to take over my mind. I think that's it. Hades once checked me into a mental institution just to get rid of me for a while." Will laughed. "Really?" "Yeah. Turns out, straightjackets are really comfortable!" "Wow, two jokes in one day. How come you aren't like this all the time?" "It's probably the morphine," Nico replied, but as he said it, he felt a twinge of pain from his wounds. Maybe the morphine was wearing off. "I have one more thing to talk to you about, Niccolò," Will said, putting the medical form away. "You still have the four bullets imbedded in your body. Would you give us your consent to remove them? You'd be under anesthesia, and it's a relatively simple operation..." Nico raised an eyebrow. "They're still there? I don't need the anesthesia, just give me a pair of tweezers. I'll pull them out myself." "I'm serious, Nico." "So am I. I've done it before, and I can do it again." "But you won't, because we can do it more professionally. So will you give your consent?" Will's voice left no room to argue. "Uh, sure. Will I still dream if I'm on anesthesia?" Will considered his question for a little bit. "That's a good question. It's hard to say. Do you usually dream?" "Yeah. I have nightmares." "Oh. What are your nightmares?" "Tartarus. And sometimes the Underworld," Nico said, staring into space, "but if I move in my sleep while someone's taking a scalpel to the gunshots..." "You don't have to worry about that," Will assured him. "You won't be able to feel anything or move at all until it wears off." "Okay." "Okay then. Get some rest." He put his paper on a clipboard hooked on the edge of the bed, and left. Nico sat still for a while, processing what had been happening that day. He really hated Zeus. There was another twinge of pain from his shoulder, stronger than before. He ignored it, and started mentally listing what had happened. Okay, I got shot four times. Zeus told everyone I'm gay. My dad stood up for me. I have a concussion. Leo's somehow alive. I told the Olympians to go to hell. The war ended, and I'm alive. I just told someone the absolute truth about my past. Why did I do that? Am I still on morphine? Another wave of pain disrupted his thoughts. The morphine was definitely wearing off fast. He glanced at the medical form. It was just out of his reach. That didn't matter, though. Although he could see the colorful loops of ink in the writing. He wondered a bit what it said. What would Will have written about his mental state? He imagined the note: 'Patient is mentally unstable and has incurable psychological issues. Do not talk to.' Maybe he could reach it if he leaned forward. Should he? There could be nothing good on it. There could be more problems on it that he hadn't been diagnosed with before. How many problems could one person possibly have? He leaned forward, ignoring the sharp pains in his shoulders, and reached the clipboard with his fingertips. Since it was in Ancient Greek and loopy handwriting, it was almost impossible for him to read with his dyslexia. After a while of translating, he read, "Nico woke up alert and in good spirits, the pain killer was wearing off and he had some memory loss. After he remembered, he was as normal as he always is, and didn't seem to be in any suffering. He was cooperative with my questions, but didn't seem to take his injuries as seriously as most people would. I tried to check if his pupils dilated normally, but they blend in to his irises unnaturally. He definitely has some problems with his past, and suffers from depression. Nico has no permanent problems except ADHD and dyslexia, but those are completely normal for a demigod. He has given consent to the removal of the bullets. He'll most likely recover normally, but my goal is to prevent further injuries. He should avoid the Underworld and shadow travel until he is fully healed." Nico saw a scrawled note at the bottom of the page that, after a minute, he deciphered. Will's sentence was continued, "...no matter what he says!" He put the clipboard back. It wasn't anything he hadn't suspected. He laid back and tried to go to sleep, hoping he didn't have nightmares. No permanent problems. He hoped that was true.
III. A Little Pain Never Hurt Anybody.
He woke up not knowing where he was, not remembering his dreams. All he could register was the pain. He cried out and sat up, but that just made it worse. His vision was black. If a monster attacked him, he would be dead. Nico forced himself to calm down and take some deep breaths. He felt like he'd been drenched in the Styx, and then the Phlegethon. At the thought of Tartarus, his mind cleared and he instinctively hid his pain. He realized there was a figure standing near the edge of the bed. He looked up. "Solace, what are you doing?" Will held a syringe of clear liquid in front of his vision and was flicking it to get rid of the air bubbles. "Measuring morphine," he replied casually. "Okay...why?" Will spoke as if to a slow little kid. "Because you are in pain." "So what? I can deal with pain," Nico retorted. "If you are in pain, then you should have a pain killer," Will told him in the same tone, still staring into the syringe. "I'm in pain, I'm a killer, I can handle it. Have a nice day!" Nico mocked him. Finally looking away from the morphine, Will asked, "Did- did you just paraphrase that Disney movie, 'Hercules?'" Nico thought about it. "Uh, maybe," he said, a little embarrassed. Will smirked. "I didn't think you would know about that kind of thing." "It wasn't mythologically accurate." Nico shrugged and then regretted it. "Ow. But I saw it once with my sister." Will didn't press. "Okay, look. You are in a lot of pain, I can tell. Why don't you want a pain killer?" he said instead. "Because I want to be in control of myself," Nico said in exasperation. "I don't want my mind to be warped." "Well, we're going to take out the bullets now, so you can't be able to feel it. How about half of the normal dose?" Will suggested. "I don't need or want any at all," Nico persisted. Will didn't back down. "Considering you'd need a double dose to fully mask your pain, half of a dose is the lowest I'm going to offer," Will said stubbornly. "How about one-fourth of a dose?" Nico countered. "Full dose it is, then. Hold out your arm." Nico held out his arm in surrender. The needle was cold, but the injection was quick. By the time Will left, Nico's pain and control we're drifting away.
IV. The Aphrodite Cabin: Even Worse Than Olympus.
He wasn't tired, but he felt like his mind was swimming through waves of thoughts, and the world was moving in slow motion. There were long times when he wasn't thinking anything, which was a relief. The few times he was conscious of reality were confusing to him. He was in a slightly different room, and saw a bullet being extracted from his shoulder. He watched the other three bullets leave his flesh and get dropped into a Petri dish with a clatter. The next thing he knew, he was in the original room in the infirmary, surrounded by loud people. Drew was there, charmspeaking and telling him simple things to do. Sit up. He sat up. Stay still. He tried not to move. He vaguely wondered if this was what being a zombie was like. He felt pinches around his face. His nose tickled. Drew gave him something and told him to put them in. He registered contact lenses. Obediently, he started to take his own contacts out to put the new ones in. There was a rush of louder talk after that. Drew gave him new directions to just take his own contact lenses out and forget the new ones. Nico obeyed. He felt something tracing lines on his arm and back. They tickled. Blindly, he tried to push it away, but Drew told him to freeze. He froze. Drew said, "Close your eyes," so he did. He felt something run along his closed eyelids. Then he heard a loud buzzing sound. Every new sensation was paired with a wave of high-pitched laughter. After what seemed like a while, the buzzing stopped, and he smelled chemicals. Finally, Drew told him to open his eyes. He saw her smug face looking down at him, looking at whatever she'd done. The last thing Nico remembered was the command to go back to sleep.
V. Practical Jokes Are Funnier When You're Not the Victim.
When he woke up, the pain killer was wearing off. The room was empty except for Will again. He leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. He had a look of pity that worried Nico. Will didn't do pity. When Will didn't say anything, Nico's curiosity got the better of him once more. "Okay...what happened? Why are you looking at me like that?" Will sighed, and handed him something- a mirror? Nico hesitated to look into it. "I had this nightmare about the Aphrodite cabin," he said uncertainly. Will looked to the ceiling and gestured to the mirror. Nico gave in and looked at his reflection. What he saw nearly stopped his heart. The first thing he noticed was his hair. He now had the back and sides of his head shaved, and the ends of his hair was now bright blue. The next thing he realized was a ring through his nose. He had piercings on his ears too. On each ear, there was an earring on the bottom, and one on the top. There was even a piercing on his eyebrow. Drew had made him take out his contacts, which revealed his blue eyes, which oddly matched his hair. He was speechless when he put down the mirror. He rubbed the newly shaved part of his scalp, and felt the piercing in his nose. "I'm going to kill them." Nico growled. Will grinned with sympathy. "The Aphrodite cabin strikes again. They got your arms, too." Nico looked at his arm. There were sharpie drawings like tattoos, and they looked like a skull patterned with and surrounded by tribal marks and swirls. On his other arm, there were bands of colors in the order of a rainbow, with a black skull and crossbones to be like a pirate flag. Nico groaned. Will laughed. "Well, it could have been worse. You look good with an undercut." He didn't flinch at Nico's glare. "How could it be worse?!" Nico challenged him. "Well," Will started, "your hair could have been shaved completely off, or it could have been dyed bubblegum pink instead of blue, they could have used mascara and lipstick instead of just eyeliner. And they could have drawn worse things on your arms." Nico hadn't noticed the eyeliner, but he now remembered how Drew had told him to close his eyes. Looking down, he saw the Aphrodite cabin had even painted his fingernails black. "I'm going to kill them," he repeated. "Not to change the subject," Will said, changing the subject, "but we successfully removed the bullets. And since your eyes are apparently blue, maybe now I'll be able to see your pupils and check your concussion." He took out his light again, and Nico had to sit still as Will shined it into each of his eyes. When he was done, Nico had spots in his vision again. "Good news!" Will told him. "Your pupils dilate normally, so your concussion is only a minor one." "Great. Does that mean I can leave to go kill Drew?" Will reluctantly replied, "Technically, you are allowed to leave whenever you feel up to it, but you can't fight or shadow travel for at least one or two weeks. And I'm not sure how much you'll want to be seen after you see what the Aphrodite cabin did to your clothes." "Why? What did they do now?" "You'll see," Will put Nico's small pile of extra clothes on the bed. There were gashes and cuts all down the legs of his jeans, and the sleeves were torn from his black shirt. Nico sighed. "Better than nothing," he supposed. He got dressed with stiff movements. There was a lot of pain, but not quite as much as before. Walking around experimentally, he had a limp, but it wasn't too bad. Will's last words to him as Nico left the infirmary were, "For the love of the gods, please be careful!" Nico wasn't really sure where to go. He wasn't allowed to train, but could he could still go to the lessons? He saw a big disturbance near the canoe lake, and heard maniacal laughter that he could only associate with a psychopath, or with Leo Valdez. Percy was tipping canoes over and sending people into the water, and Leo had apparently placed his "extreme whoopee cushions" in the canoes. These devices, when sat on, exploded with a ultrasonic fart sound, and sent the victim ten feet into the air, usually flailing. There were about ten angry victims drenched in water who were beginning to recover and turn on Percy and Leo. One such victim was Clarisse, daughter of Ares. She wielded her electric spear, and her boyfriend Chris was trying to calm her down. He claimed she'd electrocute everybody in the lake if she fought like that. Nico walked in on this scene very calmly as Percy and Leo backed away from their attackers, still laughing. The Stoll brothers were among the victims, but they just cracked up laughing as well. Clarisse and her three brothers, however, were not such good sports. Nico joined the small crowd of onlookers as Percy swam to the middle of the lake out of Clarisse's reach, and she threatened to electrocute him. Because of her threat, everyone scrambled to get out of the water, and some started chasing a frantic, flaming, cackling Leo while he threw flour bombs at them. Connor Stoll got hit right in the face with a green-colored flour bomb, and Nico flinched at the impact. Jason walked into the fight unknowingly, only to get hit with flour. Nico couldn't help but smile at the chaos. Beside him, Annabeth and Piper laughed. "Should we save them yet?" Piper asked her. Annabeth thought about it. "Nah. Let's give it a couple more minutes," she grinned. Calypso watched, fascinated. Finally, Chiron came along to break the fight up. Clarisse stalked off, still muttering threats and insults under her breath. The crowd dwindled away until it was safe for Percy and Leo to return, almost doubled over with laughter. "That was priceless!" Leo said, with tears in his eyes. "Can't- breathe-!" Percy wheezed in agreement. Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You idiots," she called them. "You were almost skewered by Clarisse." Percy caught his breath. "I dare say that would have been worth it," he high-fived Leo. Leo straightened up and saw Nico for the first time. "Aaaahhhhhh!!!!!" He yelled and immediately burst into flame. He backed away from Nico in fear, which made Annabeth, Percy, Calypso, and Piper notice him too. Leo stumbled backward too far, and fell into the lake, making it steam. The others all took an involuntary step away with wide eyes. Percy gasped, "Nico?!" "Yeah. Hi." Leo surfaced from the lake and spat a spout of water out. "What happened to you?" Percy asked. "That's kind of why I'm here." Nico turned to Piper. "Could I have a word with you about your siblings? For instance, would you care if I killed a couple of them?" Piper groaned. "It depends which siblings you're talking about," she admitted. "Drew, who else?" Nico said, watching Leo climb out of the lake. "Dude, you look wicked!" He shook water off. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Nico asked. Percy asked Piper, "If I go to the Aphrodite cabin, do you think they'll dye my hair blue?" She ignored him. "Nico," she said, "I'm sorry for what Drew did. I'll talk to my cabin." "Thanks." He turned to Leo and Percy. "Nice prank." With that, he walked away. Unfortunately, Leo followed him. He felt an arm around his shoulder, and Leo immediately started talking. "Did it hurt?" He asked. "Getting shot four times? Yes, it hurt." "No." Leo waved Nico's words away. "Did it hurt when you clawed your way through the Earth's crust from the depths of Hell?" Nico looked at him in confusion. Why was he saying that? Finally he replied, "Did it hurt when you were repeatedly dropped on your head as a baby?" Leo wasn't even fazed. "You know, when I said 'wicked,' I didn't mean that in a bad way. You know, punk is hot. The piercings are a bit unnerving, but I could get used to them." Leo's hand brushed Nico's gunshot wound. He flinched, and pushed Leo's arm away. "What do you want, Valdez?" Leo grinned. "So, I heard you like guys, Niccolò. Am I hot to you, or am I super hot to you?" "Go away, Leo. Don't call me that." Nico tried to walk faster. "You didn't answer my question!" Leo kept pace with him, since neither of Leo's legs had been shot. "Just answer me, do you think I'm hot?" "Why are you asking me this?" "What if I told you I liked you?" "Then I might actually laugh for once," Nico retorted. "Okay, fine," Leo admitted. "I made a bet with the Stolls that I could get you to admit I'm hot. Please just say yes," Leo pleaded. Nico rolled his eyes. "Only technically, since you can burst into flames at will." Leo's face fell over-dramatically. "So you're telling me I'm not attractive to you?" "I'm not even going to answer that, Leo." Leo grinned again. His wet hair fell into his eyes. "Are you in denial, Niccolò? Denial is the first step, you know." "The first step to what?" Nico asked in exasperation. When he saw Leo's face, he immediately regretted his question. "To Team Leo," Leo winked. "Go back to your girlfriend, Valdez. How are you alive, again?" Leo regained the tiniest bit of seriousness. "That anti-death potion could be injected, so I hooked it into an automatic syringe controlled by Festus." "Welcome back to life," Nico told him. "Welcome to Team Leo!" he replied. "No. Just-no." "I'll take that as a 'yes!' See you later, Niccolò!" "Don't call me that!" Leo left, probably to update the Stolls on their bet.

VI. Revenge Isn't Always Sweet.
Nico wasn't sure what he was going to until he saw Drew at sword practice. The Aphrodite cabin generally didn't fight, and at sword practices they just picked the shiniest swords and sat on the sidelines. Nico dropped in on the sword lesson and joined the campers. The instructor was an older child of Ares who was a great fighter, but often lost his temper at lazy or rude demigods. He walked among the class, picking partners to practice with each other. Drew folded her arms when she was picked. "I just got a manicure," she said snarkily, "and I am not breaking a nail." "You will fight," the instructor growled. "You have no choice. If you don't fight, your partner will kill you." "Really," Drew yawned. "And who here would be willing to hurt me?" She looked around at her siblings threateningly. They all knew how mean she could get when Piper wasn't there to counteract her. Nico smiled. This was the perfect opportunity for revenge. He spoke up. "I would." The people closest to him looked back at him in surprise. Some of them saw his piercings and blue hair and stifled laughter. He asked the instructor, "If I'm her fighting partner, do I have permission to kill her?" Drew saw him and smirked, but there was an uncertainty she quickly concealed. The instructor noticed Nico, and considered it. He grinned at Nico, saying, "Alright, you two are partners. No killing, just maiming, okay?" "But-" Drew protested. "NOW!" The instructor screamed in her face, which finally got Drew to get up and pick up a sword. Nico drew his own Stygian iron sword, and faced Drew. She handled a bright sword, the opposite color of his. She never fought real opponents, so her weapons were just for show. "Fine," Drew sneered. "I'll fight you and win." She attacked, but she was untrained and off-balance. Nico sidestepped and used her momentum to make her fall down. She landed with a thud. Shocked, she sputtered indignantly before she composed herself. "That's not fair! You didn't even use your sword!" Nico smiled maliciously. "Fine. Get up and try again." Drew pouted and stood back up. She attacked overhand this time, and Nico parried her blade. Immediately afterwards, he struck at the hilt of the sword and sent it flying away. His sword slashed through the air until it was about a centimeter from cutting Drew's neck. She froze. "Let's see; how much should I maim you? Should I cut your hair? Stain it red with your blood? Maybe pierce your nose? Or maybe," he said icily, "Maybe I won't change how you look against your will, because maybe I am actually humane." He lowered his blade. Drew scoffed. "A son of Hades, more humane than a daughter of Aphrodite? Never!" "And yet which one of us tolerates the other more? What kind of person pierces somebody's face while they're under anesthesia? Who does that?" Nico countered. Drew picked up her sword. "I'm not going to take this from some gay emo kid." She attacked once again, clumsily trying to execute the move the instructor had just demonstrated. She spun into a slashing attack, but while Drew spun around, Nico moved so he was still behind her when she lashed out into empty space. She was confused for a bit, then looked over her shoulder to Nico. She advanced again and attacked Nico's right side. He blocked her again. She kept attacking, and Nico blocked all of her attempts to hurt him. He kept up a good defense, and after a while he could tell Drew was getting tired. When she stopped attacking to catch her breath, he just waited. "You're not in very good shape," he noted. "Maybe you should start training more instead of sitting every activity out." A thought hit him. "What did you do to my contact lenses?" Drew looked at him. "I just threw them out," she said defiantly. Nico groaned. "Why? Couldn't you have just saved them? You don't respect private property. Or personal space," he added. "And I'm not emo!" "But you don't deny being gay?" Drew asked curiously. "No." "Why not?" "If I deny who I am, I'm just admitting there's something wrong with me, when there isn't." Drew seemed surprised at his answer. She looked like she was going to say something mean, but miraculously reconsidered. "Why do you wear colored contacts?" she asked instead, simultaneously launching into an attack. Nico parried and counterattacked. "Because," he said, still fighting, "my dad gave them to me." She considered his statement too long, and he disarmed her. "You wouldn't last long in a real fight," Nico told her, picking up her sword and giving it back to her. "Why did the god of the Underworld get you colored contacts?" she persisted. "None of your business," Nico grumbled. The instructor's voice rang out in the arena. "Alright! That's enough for today! I expect you all to practice what I showed you today. Practice is over!" Nico walked away from the arena without another word.
VII. A Bright Future.
Unfortunately, he ran into Will Solace. He was crossing his arms and giving Nico a disapproving glare. His bow and a quiver of arrows were slung across his shoulders. "I said no training," he accused Nico. "And what do you do? You go to sword practice!" Will shook his head. "Did you get hurt?" "No," Nico assured him. "Fighting with the Aphrodite cabin isn't exactly strenuous activity." "Fine," Will grumbled. "I'm just checking up on your injuries. Are they bothering you much?" "No," Nico replied sincerely. "They feel alright." Will started walking with Nico towards the lake. After a while, he asked, "So why did Hades give you contacts? You seem to be seeing fine without them." Nico hesitated a bit before answering, "Were you eavesdropping on our fight?" "Why, yes. Yes I was. So? Answer the question!" Nico sighed. "My dad gave me contact lenses to change my eye color to match his. Apparently, all children of Hades have really dark eyes." "Except for you," Will offered. "Yeah. I- I have my mother's eyes," he admitted, embarrassed. "So Hades gave me the contacts so I would blend in with his list of offspring." "That's kind of harsh. What's wrong with blue eyes?" "Actually, did you know that Adolf Hitler had so much hatred for himself, Hades, and his siblings, that he formed the basis of the perfect human which had blue eyes and blonde hair? It was the complete opposite of what children of Hades generally look like. So by having blue eyes, I violate the rules of what Hades' kids should logically look like." "Wait, Hitler hated himself? I thought he hated everyone except himself." "Hades isn't the best dad," Nico pointed out. "He treated Hitler horribly just because he wanted to be an artist. Hitler hated himself because Hades told him he was worthless, and he hated Hades for telling him that. He took out all of his anger on the world, and turned into the sociopathic dictator he was." "Oh." Will was silent for a long time. Finally, he said, "Whatever. Personally, I like blue eyes." Nico smiled. Will continued. "You know, with the blue eyes, black hair, and all the punk style, you look kind of like Thalia would look like if she were a guy." Nico snorted. "Just don't try to electrocute me, and I'll be fine. The difference between us is that she is punk on purpose. I didn't really have a say in the matter." "Yeah," Will said thoughtfully. "But you have to admit, it's quite a bit more interesting than wearing just black." "I guess," Nico agreed. Will patted his shoulder gently, so as not to touch the gunshot. "Okay, I'm glad you're feeling better. See you at the campfire!" With that, he left to go to archery practice. The sun was orange in the horizon and setting slowly. Nico walked around the lake for a while. As the sun disappeared and relinquished control to darkness, Nico never stopped seeing the light. When he finally started to walk to the campfire where Will was, he was happier than he could ever remember being.
VIII. Breakfast...Death... Close Enough.
The next day, he was back in the Hades cabin. When he went to wash up, he finally rubbed his faded sharpie tattoos off, and got rid of the eyeliner. He couldn't really do anything about his hair or his lack of contacts, but he could change into normal clothes. Unfortunately, his last pair of black clothes had been the shirt without sleeves and the jeans with rips down the legs. Instead, he found blue jeans and an orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. He debated taking out the piercings, but had to admit they were kind of cool, so he left them alone. Besides, he'd heard how they could become infected if they were messed with too much. He doubted it would happen, but just in case... When he had showered and was ready, he headed out for the dining pavilion. He grabbed some food(avoiding cereal, thanks to Demeter), and made some burnt offerings to the gods. He thought of Hestia in particular. She was the nicest and most sane goddess there was. Nico sat alone at the Hades table, like always. It had been added to the pavilion after the Second Titan War, and was black, like everything Hades-related. Maybe as a joke, or as a reminder of what he'd done, the table sat directly on top of the jagged scar in the ground Nico had opened when he'd found out about Bianca's death. As it was, Nico's feet dangled above a direct route to the underworld, also directly above the entrance to Tartarus. Nico wasn't the most comfortable with this arrangement, but the aura of death radiating from the ground definitely woke him up in the morning. He tried not to think of Tartarus while he ate his scrambled eggs and toast. His nose kept itching, and then it hurt to itch, because of his new nose ring. It was aggravating. After a while of being so close to the entrance to Hell, Nico lost his appetite. He scraped his leftovers right into the crack, hoping the monsters would appreciate it and not be hungry for demigod meat. He could have thrown it into the fire for the gods, but they only wanted the first shares. The gods didn't really want everyone's gross leftovers. Nico started to get up to leave, but was met with a face with blue eyes under a mess of blond hair a couple inches higher than Nico. "That's a useful garbage can, isn't it?" Will said cheerily. "If by 'garbage can' you mean 'endless pit of doom,' then yes." Nico replied sarcastically. "Hi, Will." "Hey, Death Boy!" Nico grimaced at the nickname, but Will didn't acknowledge it. "You wanna go to archery practice?" he continued. Nico sighed. "You know I suck at archery. I'm barely better at it than Percy." Will rolled his eyes. "That's all the more reason to go," he stated, in Nico's opinion, over dramatically. "It's called 'practice' for a reason! Come on, I'll help you." Not waiting for an answer or consent, Will dragged Nico off to practice. When they got to the line of targets with the rest of the Apollo Cabin, Will retrieved his bow and a quiver of arrows. Nico, not seeing much else to do, picked out a similar set of weapons. He'd exaggerated a bit when he'd said he was worse than Percy. After Bianca had joined the Hunters, Nico had practiced archery every day to see if he could find common ground with her. She'd gotten into archery so quickly, and without much practice, that Nico wanted to be just like her. She'd always been his role model, and after she'd left, Nico supposed he'd wanted to show her he wasn't as worthless as their parents had said he was. After her death and his trips to the Underworld, he'd been forced to give up archery for sword fighting. Hades, like most gods except for Artemis and Apollo, viewed sword fighting as a more dignified form of fighting than archery. It had been a long time since he'd shot with a bow, but the grip still felt familiar. He drew an arrow and nocked it, picking a target in front of him. Nico took up a stable shooting stance, and drew the arrow back to his lip. He focused on the target. Right when he was about to release the arrow, however, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped and almost lost control of the bow, looking around quickly to see Will's face very close to his. "Relax," he laughed. "I'm just trying to help you. Take up your stance again." Fighting with his mind to focus, Nico re-aimed the weapon. Will straightened Nico's elbow and posture, and then stepped back. Nico looked at him. "Can I shoot it now?" His voice has a slight edge of sarcasm, which Will promptly ignored. "Be my guest," he replied. Nico focused on the target, took a breath, and released the arrow. His eyes tried to follow its path, but they only locked on to the arrow after it had thudded into the target; a perfect bullseye. He raised his eyebrows to Will, who's face had gone blank. He turned away and sighed, grumbling. "No way. That's so unfair!" He glanced back up and smiled grudgingly. "Okay, lucky shot. Bet you can't do it again." Will picked a target, and nocked an arrow. He glanced at Nico, who also nocked another arrow. They drew their bows, and Will counted down. "In three...two...one!" They shot at the same time, and their arrows were practically parallel. Both of them hit the middle of the targets, but Will's was an inch or so off from the center. Will sighed. "Fine. Best two out of three." Practice continued like that, with competitions that neither of them really won. Will corrected Nico's technique from time to time, and Nico eventually stopped jumping when Will touched his shoulder. He still wished the son of Apollo would give him some warning. After an hour or so, practice ended. Will left with the Apollo kids to go tend to the wounded in the infirmary. Nico went to sword practice, and found Percy beating up his sparring partners. Everyone in the class had been beaten within seconds, given bruises for their trouble. Finally, when nobody volunteered to fight him again, Nico stepped up. They faced off, and the fight began. It was a good fight and lasted longer than any of the others. They were some of the best sword fighters in the camp. Finally, Percy slashed at Nico's neck, expecting Nico to block it. Instead, Nico leaned back and let Riptide sweep through the air above him, like a deadly game of limbo. Nico's hand touched the ground, doing a back-bend, and he swung his feet under himself and around to knock Percy's legs out from under him. Riptide clattered away. Nico stood up without stopping his motion, and held his sword to Percy's neck. Percy looked to see his sword was out of his reach, and then grinned and held his hands out in surrender. Nico smiled and helped him up. It was a fun practice. After a while, though, Percy had to leave, and then nobody would fight with Nico. So he just went outside of the arena and practiced his balance, trying flips, handstands, and acrobatic exercises. If anything, that caused people to be even more wary of him. He didn't really care. It was funny when he did a handstand and walked on his hands, only to catch a glimpse of an upside-down face staring at him, and trying to look away before Nico noticed. Eventually, he got tired of doing handstands, and too dizzy to do flips, so he walked around the woods for a while. He was in partial shadow, which relaxed him. He saw some birds, small animals, and even a group of dryads, which ran away from him, and disappeared into their trees when he walked by. He found a quiet place by the stream surrounded by trees, and sat down just to think. Every once in a while, a camper in a canoe or kayak would paddle by, but nobody paid Nico any attention. Once, Cecil and Lou Ellen struggled by, in the same canoe but paddling opposite directions. They noticed him while they fought and splashed each other, and said hi. Nico greeted them back, watching as they floated around the bend in the stream. Before they disappeared, though, Cecil called back to Nico. "Hey, wait! You're on our team for Capture the Flag, right?" Nico called back that he didn't know, but he wasn't sure if they heard him. Nothing else happened in the shady area, so Nico watched the shadows shift, and let his mind wander. Archery had been fun. He could still picture Will's smiling face challenging him to get the most bullseyes. He realized it had been a while since someone had joked with him and about him in good humor. For the past four years, he'd heard insults and mean jokes both behind his back and to his face. Even the people who weren't mean to him didn't necessarily like him. Generally, he was avoided. Will didn't do that. If anything, Will went out of his way to be near Nico and annoy him just enough so that Nico would tolerate it. Nico shook the thought away. Will probably did that to all his friends; it was just his personality. Wait, friend? Since when did Nico have friends? Since after the war, he answered himself. Jason, Reyna, Hazel, Frank, and the Seven. Apparently, Will too. Sure, most of them were creeped out by his powers, but were okay with him as a person. Especially now that he was trying harder to be socially "normal," whatever that meant. Just not too creepy or depressing. He smiled a bit. He hadn't felt depressed recently. Not since the his quest with Reyna transporting the Athena Parthenos. His memories and nightmares from Tartarus had taken some time to get over. He still had them, but now he could control them. He wondered what Hades had meant when he told Nico he wanted him to be happy. The obvious meaning to the words were actually fatherly. That's why Nico found them so hard to believe. For four years, Hades had tormented him. He'd run away from camp, only to fall into an open grave and be dragged down to the underworld by rotting corpses. He'd been thrown into the throne room of Hades in chains, and forced to confront a tall, creepy god who radiated fear. Hades had searched his memories, especially those of Bianca, and Nico had tried to stop him. Hades' presence was always painful, as if Nico was slowly dying. Unfortunately, that had become normal for him. Hades had snapped at Nico to get over Bianca's death, and had hit him. Hades was so often abusive. He'd never hesitated to tell Nico how inferior he was to Bianca, and how he should have died instead of her. The only reason his father had let Nico live was because Hades wanted one of his kids to be one child of the prophecy. For the next year, Nico had been forced to train in the Underworld. If he asked questions, he was hit, and if he disobeyed Hades or did poorly in training, he was beaten pretty severely. Sometimes Nico had been thrown in the Fields of Punishment, and tortured with cruel and unusual methods. Nico hadn't been able to tell anybody, for fear of Hades' threats. The training had continued for three years, until the Second Titan War. After convincing Hades to fight for Olympus, and personally fighting too, Nico won some glory for Hades and his children. He stayed at camp for about a month before people started avoiding him again, so he left. Luckily, he'd won his independence by fighting in the war, so he didn't have to return to the Underworld. Instead, he shadow traveled from place to place around the world. He went back to Italy, and then went all around Europe and Asia. He also visited Australia, Africa, South America, and even Antarctica, just to have been to every continent. Eventually, he had run out of money and was tired of going hungry, so he got a job in New Orleans digging graves. He visited cities all over North America for a while. His generally peaceful(except for the odd monster) lifestyle ended when he discovered Camp Jupiter. He didn't really mind that now. It had been nerve-wracking seeing if the Romans would kill him or trust him. He wasn't the most trustworthy-looking person. The worst part was going through Tartarus, and being bait for the Seven, and then almost turning completely to shadow when he was with Reyna. Seeing as he'd made a difference in the war and helped the camps unite, though, he supposed it was worth it. Nico watched the water flow by. The past was in the past. Now, maybe things would change. Even if he wasn't accepted now, he could always go to Camp Jupiter, or continue traveling the world. He thought of his time traveling, and was surprised to find he didn't want to go back to that. It had been interesting, but lonely. He also surprised himself with that thought. For most of his life, he'd had no one but Bianca. Even then, he'd been fine with only her, and after her death, he had learned to live in solitude. But now that he'd been around demigods for a while, he'd actually started to get used to being around living people who knew him. He had to admit it was nice to have friends, but if he'd learned anything in his life, it would be 1: Nothing lasts forever, and 2: Be careful who you trust. Hades had once warned him not to get close to anyone, because the rejection would hurt twice as much. Then again, Hades gave horribly pessimistic advice, and Nico couldn't imagine Will, or the other demigods, being mean. Nico was tired of being scared of rejection. If he was rejected, he could handle it. Nothing could be worse than what he'd already been through. Nico got up and left for Capture the Flag, oblivious to the gods taking his last thought as a challenge.
IX. The Karate Oracle.
Nico jogged into the clearing just as the demigods were distributing weapons and armor. He joined his team, which had the Apollo, Poseidon, Hades, Hephaestus, Hecate, Dionysus, and Aphrodite cabins. They were blue. The red team consisted of the Hermes, Ares, Athena, Zeus, Nemesis, and Demeter cabins. Nico strapped a set of armor on, and walked to where his team had started to huddle. Percy was their captain, and he described each group's missions. Aphrodite, Dionysus, and half of Hephaestus and Apollo's kids were on defense. The rest of them were on offense. Percy was taking his beloved tactic of moving down the stream to the other side, while the others split up into smaller groups of two and swarmed into the other side from different directions. The demigods scurried around, finding their defensive positions and trying to partner up with their friends. Nico hesitated, unsure whether to try to get a good fighting partner, or wait until there was one person left. Maybe there would be an odd number of people so he could go alone. His eyes steeped the group that was on offense, trying to count the number of moving bodies. Two, four, six, eight,... Nico got to thirty-five in the Hephaestus and Aphrodite cabins before he started on the Apollo campers. Forty, forty-one, forty-two... His eyes met Will's, and he paused, before continuing his count. Wait, what number was he at? He looked back at Will, annoyed at the son of Apollo for making him lose count. He was a little surprised to see Will was still looking at him. Nico now noticed Will had an unfocused look, as if he was thinking about something important. He wasn't moving around, looking for a fighting partner either, like the rest of his siblings. Suddenly, his face went red, and he realized he'd been staring. Will looked away, but started moving with jolting motions. Nico wasn't sure what had just happened, so he didn't think much of it, until he walked right into Will. His face wasn't as red anymore, but he did stammer a bit when he first spoke. Almost sheepishly, he smiled, and stated, "S-so... we're both on offense." Nico wasn't sure what had caused Will to be so nervous, but he actually smiled a bit to try to relieve whatever tension there was. "Yeah, I guess we are." Will opened his mouth to say something, but thought twice about it. He glanced over his shoulder, and Nico followed his gaze. There were some of Will's siblings who were nodding and seeming to encourage him, but they stopped when they realized Nico had seen them. Taking a wild guess at what Will was trying to say, Nico took the initiative, saying, "Well, since we're on offense together, do you want to pair up? If you don't already have a partner, that is." Will raised his eyebrows, but didn't hesitate to accept the offer. As they took up their positions near the route they would take, Nico started wondering why Will had been like that. He was never shy, so why start now? It was only a game of Capture the Flag. "On my mark!" Chiron's voice sounded throughout the forest. "Let the game begin!" The demigods took off running. Nico, despite his injuries, was in pretty good shape. Will nocked an arrow to his bow as they wove between trees. They didn't encounter any of the red team until they passed the boundary line. To their right was a group of ten red fighters, trying to stop Percy but being bombarded by jets of water. To their right, Nico saw some of the Hephaestus cabin battling with the Hermes and Demeter cabins, trying not to be tripped with vines. Straight ahead of Will and Nico was the flag. They were so close... They just had to go through a couple dozen well-armed demigods on the red team. Will started shooting his bow, stopping ten yards away before the defensive lines, and Nico charged straight into a line of Hermes' kids. He knocked out three of them with his initial charge, and ducked blows from two more. After a while of fighting, and taking out six more people, he started to realize people hesitating to fight him. It was as if they scared of him. He grinned, still fighting, and was pleased to see that even his smile was apparently scary. He cut through the first three lines of Hermes' kids, and was confronted by two more rows of children of Ares, including Clarisse herself, wielding her electric spear. Good, Nico thought. He liked a challenge. As the first three attackers charged towards him, he quickly judged which of them was going to attack first. Sure enough, Nico was expecting the first attack and he sidestepped it. He used a move he'd learned in the Underworld, using their momentum to push the son of Ares down and past him. As an afterthought, he stuck his foot out so that they tripped and fell on their face. The other two slashed at him with their swords. If they had worked in unison, Nico would have been skewered. As it was, however, Nico was able to block both attacks, one after the other. He grabbed one of their arms, turned away, and flipped them over his shoulder, landing with a loud thud. He turned back around to meet his third attacker, but they had fallen, grabbing their leg, from which a yellow arrow with a smiley face on it protruded. Nico caught a glimpse of Will smirking at him, knocking another arrow and continuing to pick people off. Nico kept fighting, managing to incapacitate the entire Ares cabin except for Clarisse. Catching his breath, Nico looked up to see an annoyed yet smug expression on her face. She wielded her spear, advancing slowly. Nico readied himself, judging her stance. She didn't seem to be particularly tense, but her smile changed into a scowl when she saw all twelve of her siblings beaten, especially since they were all heavier, more muscular, and taller than Nico. It was his turn to smile at that. "You will die," she growled. She raised her spear, shouting a war cry, and lightning flashed against her already menacing features as Jason charged at Nico, flying through the air above Clarisse. They both held weapons that could easily kill or at least electrocute Nico, and he weighed his chances. They had paired up their strongest fighters to defend against Nico specifically. They wanted a fight. Nico could see the red flag as clear as day right behind Clarisse and Jason. Grinning in anticipation of the clash, Nico charged. He had to focus, and time it right. If he got too close, they could shock him with about a billion volts of electricity; and that would be with only one cylinder of lightning! So he ran towards them, raising his sword for it to meet theirs. Just as Jason and Clarisse tensed, predicting a strong force pushing back against their weapons, Nico ran right through them. He turned to shadow, passing through their bodies and sprinting past them. Jason flew into the ground and stumbled, and Clarisse thrust her spear into the earth. Where Nico had stood a second before was now scorched black. He kept running, and was met by several more people, but ran right past them. They couldn't stop him in shadow-form. He noticed a great depletion in his energy as he strained to maintain his powers, and he had to turn solid again as he neared the flag and grabbed it, making sure there would be no one in his way. Unfortunately, gasping for breath, Nico turned around to see an angry daughter of Ares and a disgruntled-looking Jason barreling towards him. Not this again, he thought. He sprinted away from the base with the flag in his hand, going straight towards his enemies. Again. The electricity was all charged up again, and Clarisse seemed determined to use it this time. Nico didn't think he could manage any more shadow tricks. With so much momentum going towards their own base, his attackers would probably have a hard time stopping and chasing him the other way. The only problem was getting past them in the first place. He didn't have much time to decide on a plan, so Nico dove diagonally past the charge. The lightning actually seared his shoe, probably melting the sole, but he rolled and got up running. He heard shouts and cheers, and some of red team's offense was running back to stop him, but Nico crossed the boundary line just in time. Chiron's voice echoed across the field over the noise of the demigods. "Blue Victory!" Nico watched the flag morph from red to a deep blue.
Just then, when he thought the game was over, a freight train seemed to run into him. It took him a moment, after getting the wind knocked out of him, to realize that it was only a demigod that had run into him and forcefully pushed him down. "You do not deserve this," the son of Nike hissed. "Victory is for the living. Go back to the Underworld with the rest of the demons!" Nico was stunned, but luckily a couple Athena children pulled their teammate away, struggling and cursing. Nico got up and wheezed, marveling at the force that had just hit him. "Ow," he muttered, as an understatement. His teammates rushed to see if Nico was okay, and to celebrate him winning the game for them. He waved them off, mostly, and tried to get away. In the end, it was Will that saved him, by exclaiming loudly, "Nico, your gunshot wounds are bleeding!" With that, the demigods allowed Will to extract him from the crowd. As soon as they took about four steps away, Nico was tackled. Again. This time it wasn't so forceful, but Nico fell nevertheless, hitting his head on a small rock. He groaned, stumbling to his feet. Amazingly, this new assault had apparently come from the girl standing stiffly in front of him: Rachel. The crowd gasped, all eyes on her and Nico. Her eyes were a swirling green, and smoke billowed from her mouth. The smoke was different this time, though. It was a solid black color instead of the usual green, it was trying to take form, and it was more substantial than smoke. It wrapped around Nico's arms, pinning him in place as the Oracle spoke:
Taken back through the dark by the one that had given you away,
Illuminated by your hate.
Suddenly, Rachel's fist smashed into his face. Nico grunted in surprise and pain. The Oracle kept speaking like nothing had happened.
Leave with four and remain but one,
So be sure not to be late.
Rachel hit him again, this time hitting him square in the jaw.
You will be taken and tumbled around,
Seeing the past replay.
Nico winced, expecting yet another hit, but it didn't happen. He opened his eyes for the rest of the prophecy.
If you fail, or make your goals,
you will surely pay.
Rachel lashed out once more, kicking him in the stomach. Doubled over, he soon heard what he assumed was her coming out of the trance: "Holy Apollo...what happened? Why is he hurt?" Nobody said anything, except for Leo, who broke the shocked silence. He whistled and put a hand on Rachel's shoulder. He looked at her as if with a newfound respect. "What happened," he grinned, "is that you just went all "karate oracle" on the son of Hades!" A scene of confusion followed, where Rachel tried to apologize, and some campers helped her sit down. They also tried to help Nico sit down, but he waved them away and tried to escape into the background. There was loud talk about the new prophecy, a quest, why the Oracle was suddenly working again, and why the Oracle had suddenly made Rachel so violent. Nico had taken a lot of hits from monsters and bullies, but he marveled at just how much force Rachel had punched him with. She had a mean right hook! Just as he was about to escape the crowd, he felt a strong and steady hand on his shoulder, steering him back to the very center. Chiron kept his hand there, like he could sense that Nico wanted to get away from all of the chaos. "The Oracle has just recited a prophecy!" he announced to the crowd, waving his other hand for silence. "Therefore, there will have to be a quest of some sort. I'm not sure what the object of the quest is, however. There haven't been any major problems since the Giant War." He turned to Nico. "Since you will be going on this quest, is there something you know that we don't?" Nico shook his head, his jaw aching too much to speak. "Well, then," Chiron said apologetically, "good luck." Nico was confused. How was he supposed to complete a quest if he didn't know what it was? Some demigods began to leave the group, but then a voice in the crowd called back to Chiron. "Wait! It says he leaves with four, doesn't that mean he needs three more people?" Nico looked up to the source of the voice, his heart skipping a beat when he saw Will. He had to stop doing that, he thought. He needed all the oxygen he could get, and here Will was, holding up his pulse! Will made it through the throng of people, and stood by Nico's side as Chiron turned around and regarded him. "I suppose it did say that," he considered. Reluctantly, Chiron asked, "Do you have anyone in mind?" Will stated proudly, "I'll go." "We will too!" Two voices spoke behind them. Turning around, Nico saw Cecil and Lou Ellen looking determined to be included. Despite his swollen jaw, Nico had to speak up. "The prophecy said 'leave with four and remain but one. Doesn't that mean that three out of four of us would die if we went together? And we don't even know where we're going, or what we're going there to do!" Will put a hand on Nico's arm. Nico turned to look at him, and found himself staring into the set of deep blue eyes. "Nico, we all heard the prophecy, and we all know the risks. But we still volunteered. If death threats didn't stop us, what makes you think that you can? We are with you. End of story." Nico took his gaze from Will's eyes to look at the other two demigods. They were both nodding, agreeing with Will's every word. Finally, he sighed, giving in to their request. "You guys are the most stubborn people I've ever met!" They just grinned at him. "Okay, so the first line of the prophecy said 'Taken back through the dark by the one that had given you away, illuminated by your hate,'" Nico started. "Any idea what that means?" Lou Ellen pitched in, chiming, "Well, who do you know that has given you away?" Nico shuffled his feet. "Well," he said, "that would have to be Bianca. When she joined the Hunters of Artemis, she gave me up to this camp." Cecil thought, and wondered, "It said we'd be taken through the dark, right? So who's going to take us, and when?" "That's a good point, Cecil," Lou Ellen told him. As they debated this last part, something on the tree behind Will caught Nico's eye. Shadows on trees didn't usually move. They definitely didn't move in a swirling pattern, and they sure never formed a demonic face. He took a cautious step towards it, and it seemed to cackle soundlessly. Nico opened his mouth to warn the others, but it was too late. He was cut off by the shadow reaching out and grabbing his shirt and pulling him face-first through the tree. Nico let out a strangled cry, and Will grabbed his hand at the last minute. The last view Nico saw was of Will's surprised face before the world was consumed in darkness.

X. The High School of Horror. The shadows spit them out into a torrent of rain. Nico landed first, sliding into a mud puddle and making a big splash. Three more bodies were shot out of the shadows. Nico knew because they fell on him. He winced, thinking of all the bruises he had by now. Everyone scrambled to their feet. Nico took a minute to recover his senses. It rarely rained at camp, and Nico was honestly unused to this kind of weather. "Where are we?" Cecil groaned. Will looked around. "It looks like mix between a medieval castle and a haunted house," he announced. Nico followed his gaze, and froze. His eyes widened, and his mouth went dry. No. It couldn't be. But of course, it was. Will kept talking, oblivious to Nico's reaction. "Wow. They even have gargoyles. Why do you think we're here?" His last question was aimed mostly at the quest leader, and the son of Apollo just then saw Nico's face. "Wait, what's wrong?" Nico wasn't sure how to answer. He didn't really want to answer at all. But he didn't want to be here either. He didn't have much of a choice but to answer Will. "This... This is my old school," Nico admitted miserably. The three stared at him, then at the creepy school building, and then back at him. "You went to school here?" Lou Ellen asked incredulously. "This is a school?" Cecil matched her tone. It was just as Nico remembered; cold stone walls, depressing weather every day of the year, and fortified architecture designed to keep people in rather than to keep enemies out. The people who ran this school were enemies of everyone. "This is barely a school." Nico's voice turned bitter. "They teach endurance, discipline, and self-control. The teachers personally make sure each and every student is as miserable as possible. It's called a military school, but it's more of a prison. The only difference is that they use torture and fear, and there's no way to stop it happening to you unless you are as cruel as the teachers." Nico glared at the school, thinking of bad memories. "There's always a group of bullies making life harder for the weaker kids in exchange for the teachers leaving them alone." Cecil stared at him in disturbance. "It sounds like a concentration camp," he marveled. Nico's expression became even crazier, if possible. "Don't say that," he pleaded breathlessly. Cecil was confused. "Why?" Nico glared at the ground, trying to calm down. There were too many horrible memories haunting him. "Because," he answered Cecil, "I grew up in communist Italy during World War II. You have absolutely no idea what horrible acts against humanity were committed right in front of me." He knew his words were harsh, but it wasn't Cecil's fault. "I'm sorry. It's a sore spot for me." Nico had to get away from the past, but he couldn't escape this horrible school. Rain had soaked through all of their clothes, and had started to wash the mud off of them. Lou Ellen shivered. "Maybe we should go inside before we get pneumonia." Nico crossed his arms. "Be my guest. I'd rather die." Just then, a voice spoke three feet behind Nico, sending shivers up his spine, more chilling than the rain. The demigods jumped, and spun around to meet 'the one that had given him away.' So that's who the prophecy meant. "If you want to die, you could always reopen those scars of yours," Hades suggested. Will, Lou Ellen, and Cecil knelt before the Lord of the Dead. However, that caused their knees to sink into the mud. Nico remained standing, trying to keep his voice even. "Which scars? You've given me so many." Hades smiled very slightly. "We both know that those particular scars were not by my hand." Nico glared at him. "Why are you here? What do you want?" Hades rolled his eyes and sighed over dramatically. "Why must you always start with that?" "Unless you have another inspirational speech," Nico answered, "I'm pretty sure I was beaten up by the Oracle and transported to my old prison-of-a-school just so you can tell me what I have to do this time." Hades frowned. "I might hit you if you weren't partly right." He stepped forward, putting a hand on Nico's shoulder. "You took four bullets, and still managed to insult the gods, keep your dignity, and freak everyone out with your extreme pain tolerance by walking away from Olympus." Hades' expression softened. "I'm proud of you. But the gods won't take you seriously until you prove them wrong. I'm sorry to involve you in it, but Zeus and I have a bit of a disagreement about it." Nico didn't like where this was going. "What do you mean?" he asked. Hades continued, "Zeus doesn't think you can handle going back to this place. This was the one challenge that you didn't get through. Bianca shielded you from the worst of it, and Zeus doesn't think you could have survived it otherwise. This is the roughest school he could find, and it makes it worse that this probably brings back bad memories. It's not very nice of me, I know, but you have to overcome your fear of this place." Nico sighed. "So how do I prove that I'm over my fear? Do I have to stand up to the bullies or something?" Hades glanced at the other three demigods, still kneeling and watching the conversation with fascination. "You can get up now," he told them. As they scrambled up from the mud puddle, Hades finally gave Nico a straight answer. "You know it's almost September, and you're behind in your studies. I would have sent you back to school anyway, but now I have to choose this one. This is your school this year, Nico." Nico just stared at his father. Hades had rarely met Nico with good intentions. Now that he actually respected Nico a little, he was trying to help. Hades had told him he was proud of Nico. He had another chance to make Hades proud, but a whole year at this pit of hell? That was like going back to Tartarus! He weighed his options. If he refused, he'd be branded a coward once again, and probably forced to go to this school anyway. If he accepted, he might be able to prove Zeus wrong, and make his father proud. He glanced back at the ominous school. The rain ran down his neck and caused his hair to stick to his face. He asked Hades, "What's the challenge? Do I have to be respectful, do I have to fight back against the bullies? Do I just have to get beaten up and not fight back? What am I supposed to prove?" His father considered the question. Nico got a little distracted by the rain, and how Will's t-shirt was soaked through, and sticking against his skin. He felt himself blush slightly when he realized his own clothes were the same way. Hades answered his question, snapping Nico out of his thoughts. "You should prove yourself to be strong. Endure any punishment you are given, but know when to stand up for yourself. Don't let the pain or taunts get to you." Nico thought that was easier said than done. "What about my friends, though? They don't have to stay, do they? This isn't really a quest, after all," he finally asked. Will finally spoke up out of curiosity. "And why did the Oracle finally work?" Hades explained, "I sent a prophecy I made up so you would have a little warning of what you were getting into. I suppose your friends can choose to leave or stay, since they don't have any part in this. They were mostly meant to be witnesses of your fate. Oh, and the whole "karate Oracle" thing, as the camp now calls it, is partially my fault. The Oracle's spirit and Rachel's instincts rejected my aura and the prophecy, so Rachel defended herself, thinking you were the attacker. Sorry about that." Nico sighed. Hades caused so much pain sometimes, that it was hard to believe he could ever try to be nice. Yet at least it hadn't been on purpose, and he was even apologizing, if halfheartedly. "Okay," he finally agreed. "I'll go to this school for the year. But it isn't September yet. School won't start until two or three weeks from now. Can't we go back to camp until then?" "Sure," Hades allowed, uninterested. "It makes no difference. You're just here now so I could talk to you about it." He waved his hand. The last thing Nico heard from his father before the darkness took them away was, "Good luck; you'll need it."
Lesson Learned.
The next few days, Nico was dead. Physically, and emotionally dead. It was so easy sometimes, to zone out his problems, to pretend nothing mattered, and nothing could hurt him anymore. It was just like being dead. He didn't want to think about anything, because he knew it would all somehow bring him back to thoughts of Tartarus and that place. His old demented school. He tried meditating, tried thinking about Will and his friends, but it didn't work. He went back to training with the Ares cabin, and that worked. They had been the only cabin to accept him into their training group, only wanting a new target and competition. For a week, Nico must have spent about four hours a day at the sword fighting arena. He constantly defended himself from the Ares kids' attacks and taunts, and it kept his walls up. He remembered how to ignore his emotions, keep his mind focused on the fight, and deal with the pain. His bullet wounds reopened several times, but he avoided the infirmary. He didn't want to see Will, the stubborn medic that he was. He just let them bleed and scab over again. Nico decided he'd have to practice his pain endurance and self-control. That was what the gods were going to test him on. No more antibiotics, no more medicine or morphine. Sword fighting was a great way to prepare himself; it gave him exercise, pain, insults, and even more experience being around people who hated him. He soon got used to being alone again, using his family's disapproval as motive to keep training. He wanted to prove them wrong. He was not worthless. He fought Clarisse, and beat her fairly. He was not a demon. Clarisse brought some of her siblings after the fight, and cornered him without weapons. They jumped him, pushing him to the ground and crushing his nose under one of their boots. He could have shadow traveled away, or fought back, but he didn't. Nico was angry, angry at them, angry at Hades for sending him back into torture, angry at the gods for treating him like garbage. He was angry at himself for ever believing he could have a normal life for a while. That he could ever have friends. Two strong sets of arms held him in place while Clarisse rained down punches on him. He didn't resist. She finally finished, giving him one last punch, right in the mouth. They let him go, and Clarisse kicked some dust over him. "Next time, know who you're dealing with, punk," she spat. Nico glared at her, morbidly tempted to give her some visions of Tartarus. Then he remembered himself, and his mission. He slowly stood up, and found his sword from when they had disarmed him, just in case three versus one hadn't been fair enough. They looked alarmed when he picked it up, like they feared his revenge. He smiled dementedly through the taste of his own blood and thanked them politely, sliding his sword back into its sheath. Self-control: check. The next day, he was ambushed again. Only this time, it was by a certain son of Apollo. He blocked the way to the sword arena, pushing Nico back a little so that they could talk. "You're not going in there," he told Nico. Nico glanced back at the training. "Why not?" he asked. "Because you're being an idiot," Will answered him. "Do you care to explain?" Nico grumbled, noticing Will guiding him to the infirmary. "Not really." Will's voice was abnormally cold. Nico wasn't going to hurt Will, so he decided to go along with him. They went to a room, Will telling Nico to sit on the bed, and closing the door. He stood there, crossing his arms disapprovingly, as if not sure what to do with him. "You reopened your wounds. After I bandaged them countless times. You've been letting the shadows in, just when I thought I'd finally driven them away. You're training too hard, picking fights recklessly. How dumb are you?!" Will's voice had risen to almost a shout. His words stung, but Nico waited to reply. Will wasn't done yet. "Do you have any idea how harmful you are? Not only to yourself, but to the people who care for you! They kept you alive! If I had any idea how you were going to waste all our work and undo it, I might have dedicated it to a patient who would appreciate it! Jason saved you from breaking your neck. Percy donated blood. I literally kept you from the brink of death! Start acting like you care about us, or I'll undo the work for you!" Will's voice was full of accusation and betrayal. Nico had never seen Will this way. It shocked him, left him speechless and racked with guilt. "And this time?" Will continued, "This time I'm done. You can heal by yourself, in all the wrong ways. Keep being an idiot. But when you die, don't expect any pity at your funeral." Will gave him an uncharacteristically harsh glare, and Nico winced. Will turned his back and opened the door to leave. Nico found his voice, his face burning with shame. "Wait-Will! I can explain!" It seemed hopeless, but Will paused. "Explain what? Unless you have an apology, a promise, or an epiphany, I'm not interested. You be the judge." Will refused to look at him. Nico sighed. Will wouldn't care about why he did it; just that he never did it again. "Alright-" he started. "I'm sorry. And I'll stop fighting for a while." Will glanced towards him, giving Nico the tiniest ray of hope. "And?" he asked. "And," Nico admitted, "I'll be more careful from now on."
"And?"
"And... I promise to be nicer."
"To whom?" Will prompted him.
"To everyone,...especially you."
"Because?"
"Because you are, or at least were, my friends, and I wasn't sure what that meant before."
Will finally looked him in the eyes. "Good. You'd better keep your promise."
Nico breathed out. "I swear it on the Styx."
Will seemed satisfied with that. Before he left, he told Nico, "Of course we're still your friends. That's why we're making you protect yourself."
He left Nico before he could respond, although Nico couldn't even think of a word in the whole world he might have said. That night in his cabin, he went over the new rules for his behavior.
1: be strong.
2: don't hold grudges.
3: be a gracious loser.
4: be a gracious winner.
5: be nice to people, especially Will.
6: no more harmful tendencies.
7: survive the school year.
He went over those rules in his mind, brainstorming different ways to follow those rules in possible situations. He couldn't talk about any fights that he won, and he couldn't complain about losing a fight. He wouldn't say a word about any pain he was in, no matter what. He would only fight in self-defense. He would obey whatever crazy rules the teachers came up with, but he wouldn't listen to the bullies. He would not show any emotion, but he would be calm and peaceful in any threatening situation. No attitude. If he was hit, he would just take it. He would only fight back if he it was a fair fight- meaning, he was seriously outnumbered and feared for his life. That was a figure of speech, he supposed. It had been a long time since he'd feared death instead of longing for it. He wrote the rules down, but memorized them quickly. It was hard for him to read with his dyslexia. Time passed, and Nico slowly corrected his mistakes, making it up to Will. He helped out in the infirmary, made an effort to be more polite and friendly, and stopped sword fighting with the Ares cabin, going to archery practice instead. Will didn't seem to be holding a grudge, and Nico thought he was relieved after letting out that rant to him. Nico was a little worried he wouldn't be prepared to face his nightmare of a school, but he saw the sense in Will's opinions. It had been rude of him not to take more care of himself after everybody had gone through so much to help him. Besides, he had a week left at camp, and he wasn't going to waste it being as miserable as he would be at school. Some of the demigods were already getting ready to go back to their families, which meant a lot of goodbyes. Nico didn't know if anyone cared that he was leaving, or maybe they were relieved, but it sounded like a friendly thing to say goodbye. He debated going to Will right before he left, but was unsure. In any case, he did still have to prepare to go to school. Two days before he had to leave, he walked into his cabin, tripped over something, and fell flat on his face. Getting up disoriented, he saw it was a small group of two black bags and a binder. One of the bags was a backpack, with notebooks, pens, and collection of general school supplies. The other bag was larger, and Nico opened it to find clothes and sports equipment. Most of it was black, of course, and all of it was according to the strict dress code, but some of it was in an array of different colors. Nico appreciated this. Even though the colors were still dark, Nico liked a choice and a possible change in what he could wear. The last time Hades had helped him by sending him some clothing, it had all been black, and it had included his grandfather's aviator jacket. His mother's father had fought bravely in the Italian mortal Air Force. Having his jacket just reminded Nico of how he could never compare to the rest of his family, but that he was still expected to fight. Now, Hades respected him. As much as Hades had ever respected anyone else. It felt great to have him approve of colored clothing. It was as if Hades was opening the opportunity for Nico to be his own person. He took out the pieces of sports equipment. There were cleats and shin guards for soccer, basketball shoes, and running shoes. This was amazing. Nico had never had the courage to try out for sports teams, but he'd thought about it and dreamed about it. Bianca had always convinced him not to even try, since she claimed he'd get hurt, and she was trying to be responsible for him. Now, he was athletic. He was tougher. He could handle it, and he would. Nico was going to do soccer, basketball, and track. "Thank you, Father," he said softly. He grinned at the equipment, noticing the colors. They were all black, but each of them had a different neon color standing out against the darkness. His cleats had blue on the bottoms and along the sides. His shinguards had the same. The basketball sneakers had bright green soles and laces. Lastly, the running shoes were a deep indigo. He set them aside, realizing that he was finally committed to this school. He was going back for the first time in four years. He hoped the bullies had moved away, or matured philosophically, and realized that they were wrong. He very highly doubted it. He moved to start packing his new school supplies, but found something sharp at the bottom of the bag. Retracting his hand in surprise more than pain, he reached in more carefully and drew two last things out. One of them was a pair of scissors with a note attached to it. He read the note, realizing with a shock that this was the first time he'd ever seen his father's handwriting. The note read, "This is for school, as you've already guessed. The sports are not optional; they're part of the test. Don't forget to cut your hair and get rid of the piercings. Use a military-standard buzz cut. You know the drill. P.S: you can keep the nose ring if you can hide it well enough." Nico couldn't believe it. It was as if Hades really was on Nico's side. He actually had a father, and he wasn't at all like his reputation. At least, he hadn't been lately. The last item in the bag was a mirror. Nico looked at the bags, and packed up his materials. He took the scissors in his right hand, and propped the small mirror against the wall. Sitting on the floor, he started to cut his hair.
Goodbye... Oh, Wait.
On the final full day at camp, he went to the end-of-summer bonfire. Will greeted him with a surprised smile. "Your hair?" he questioned as they walked along the lake to the glowing orange fire in the slight distance. Nico shrugged. "It's a military school. There are dress codes."
"Oh." Will's face fell, and he seemed deep in thought.
"Why?" Nico found Will's reaction pretty strange.
"Oh, nothing. I just-uh, liked the blue." Will was a terrible liar. While he usually told part of the truth or relied on technicalities, Nico could see when something was bothering him. He pressed further.
"Oh, come on. What's really up with you? Why is my hair affecting your life?" Will gave him an odd look, like, "isn't it obvious? Do you really not know?"
"Because," Will explained. I'd rather not cut my hair like that."
"Well, you don't have to shave the sides, but- wait, what? You don't need to cut your hair. It's only for people going to that stupid school." Will stopped in his tracks and faced Nico. "Really," he stated, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I wouldn't have thought of that one."
"Well then why-?"
"Wow. You really are dense. Let me spell it out. I'm going with you to your school. I'm going to stay for the whole year. I asked my mom, and she doesn't care. I'm all signed up. But now," he sighed. "I have to cut my hair." Nico stared. He just stared for almost a minute before his brain slowly resumed its function. "Why?" he finally asked. Will responded, "You just said, everyone at the school has to have short hair."
"No," Nico rolled his eyes. "Why are you going to my school?" Will crossed his arms. "Because someone has to make sure you don't kill yourself, and I was part of the quest, after all." Something in Nico's brain fizzled.
"I am not going to let you go through that hell of a school. No way." Will put his hands on Nico's shoulders. "It is not your choice," he said calmly. "My mom doesn't care where I am, as long as I'm not in her way. I'd like to stay at camp, but Cecil and Lou Ellen are leaving, and so are you. I couldn't stand to be here for a whole year without you guys. At least at your school, I can be helpful. I have a bad feeling you're going to need someone close to you who knows first aid." Will smiled, but his eyes were completely serious. Nico was in disbelief. "I don't know what to say, Will. I guess it's your choice, but I am warning you that you'll definitely regret it at one point." Will raised his eyebrows. "Just say you'll help me cut my hair. If I do it, it'll turn out horribly."
"Deal."
Will's blond hair was a shame to have to cut off. Although, it was fun running his hands through it while he cut, Nico admitted. It was always so shaggy that Nico was surprised there weren't more knots. When he was done, Will ran his hand along his closely-cropped scalp. He groaned. "This is going to take forever to grow back." Though he liked Will's long hair better, Nico thought he didn't look half-bad, and he told him so. That seemed to cheer Will up a little.
Back at the Hades cabin, Nico stayed awake in his coffin-shaped bunk bed. His stomach turned over itself in anxiety for the next day. Who would he see? Would anyone pick on him? The few things that cheered him up were the thought that he could probably fight any bully and win now, no matter their size, and the thought that Will was going with him. With that comforting thought, Nico yawned. He wouldn't be alone. He would get to start over his school experience. The bullies probably wouldn't even recognize him. At least he would be with Will. Slowly but surely, Nico drifted to sleep.

Notes

It's just one really big chapter again.