A...Random Rambling I Guess?

This would have qualified as a quickwrite except for two reasons. One, I wrote this for school, and second, I spent a long time on this trying to make it good. While reading, keep in mind that nothing I write for school comes out good, and I wrote this at around eleven at night about.

And now, a continuation of where Son of Neptune left off!


Percy stood with the Romans in Camp Jupiter, staring into the sky. He knew that even though they had made him praetor, they didn’t fully trust him. He could not blame them, really. For hundreds of years, Greeks and Romans had hated each other. They had been enemies as long as anyone could remember. And now here they were, welcoming a group of Greeks from Camp Half-Blood on a flying warship into their camp.
        Definitely not something to make him very trustworthy. And if anything went wrong,he would be sentenced to death.
        None of it mattered anyway. Soon, he was going to see Annabeth. For so long, he only dreamed of her, not truly knowing if she even existed or not. He was still going to have to slap Juno through for stealing his memories.
         Percy was jerked out of his thoughts when the ship landed right in front of him on the ground. After taking a few steps back, he waited for someone to step out of the ship. All was silent, even Octavian wasn’t making a fuss about nonsense. Everyone wanted to see what they would do.
         Finally, Leo stepped out. In person, he looked even more like the boy in Hazel’s photograph, Sammy. Somehow they were related. Or maybe they were the same person. Percy had seen enough strange things in his life to not be too surprised if the second theory turned out to be true.
         The only problem would be that what would happen to Frank and Hazel? They were definitely made for each other...but Hazel had been in love with Sammy Valdez in her previous life. This would definitely bring up some complications there.
          Again his thoughts drifted back to Annabeth. Where was she? After a couple more familiar people stepped out, there she was, her Yankees cap firmly rested on her head, her blond hair spilling down on her shoulders. Her gray eyes met Percy’s gaze. No one moved.
         Then she started walking toward him. Percy could feel his heart racing. Would she kiss him? It had been so long since they had seen each other.
         His hopes vanished when she slapped him clear across the face. Before he could even ask why she did that, she started yelling at him. “Where were you? What happened to staying in one place so Tyson could find you easily? And most of all, why did you leave?”
         Again, she didn’t let him respond. Instead, she went to go stand by the members of camp Half-Blood again.
         Suddenly, Percy didn’t know what to do. Where did he belong? he’d grown up, learned the world of gods through Camp Half-Blood, but now he was the appointed praetor of Camp Jupiter. And wouldn’t Octavian love it if he just left them for the Greeks? It would confirm his most desired suspicions.
        But the gaze in Annabeth’s eyes had been so challenging. As if she were daring him to come back. He could just hear her telling him, You’re a coward. You always run away. Without another moment’s hesitation, Percy spoke up.
          “Well...hi.”
          Okay, it wasn’t much. But it was something, something at all to break the frosted silence that marked the boundary between the two groups of demigods.
         Leo grinned. “‘Sup.”
        That guy seemed friendly enough. Maybe if Annabeth wanted to remain all silent, he could talk with him instead.

It turned out that they all met in the same room. Percy, Frank and Hazel seemed nice enough. Though there was that way that they were looking at him, Hazel especially. As if she’d seen a ghost or something. Leo couldn’t figure it out.
Annabeth had come too, with him, Jason, and Piper. Reyna settled herself in the room too. Honestly, Leo would have preferred it if she hadn’t been there too; there was something very unsettling about the way she looked around, but he guessed he shouldn’t challenge her, since she was the real power between the two praetors.
“Right,” Percy began. “I’m pretty sure you all know the details of why we’re here, so let’s get right to it. We need to figure out what our plan to go about this is. And we need to figure out who our seventh person is.” Leo could see the hesitation behind Percy’s last statement, as his eyes lingered on Annabeth. He definitely liked her a lot, but she still wouldn’t talk to him.
Jason nodded in agreement. He probably seemed the most uncomfortable in the room. Leo knew that Jason liked Piper. But the way that he was avoiding meeting both Reyna’s and Piper’s eyes, he suspected that there was something going on. If Jason hurt Piper...well he would pay. Piper didn’t deserve anything like that.
Hazel spoke up. “Wait, Percy, I think we should tell them about Nico...,” her voice trailed off when she saw Percy’s and Annabeth’s expressions darken.
“What happened to Nico?” Annabeth asked. Leo had to give it to her, she finally spoke without glaring at Percy. He almost felt bad for the guy.
Percy shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Er..well. Nico thought he might be able to find the Doors of Death from the other side. And Gaea has him now. We have no idea if he is even alive at this point.”
Annabeth’s eyes widened. “Oh,” was all she said. Leo had heard about this Nico from Annabeth, but he really didn’t know who he was. Except that he was a child of Hades.
Leo met Piper’s eyes. She noticed the discomfort about Nico too. “I guess it’s decided then,” she said. “We find this Nico person first.”
Percy looked as if he were about to argue, then sighed. “We shouldn’t...but we have to.”
Hazel looked grateful. Annabeth just looked shocked still.
“But I don’t get it. Nico is powerful. Like stay-hidden-from-anything powerful. How did he get caught?” Annabeth asked.
Hazel sighed. “I don’t know,” she said. She looked as if she were going to cry soon. Leo noticed how much younger she was to the rest of them, about three years of a difference. “Gaea spoke to me, telling me she had him.”
“She could have been lying,” Frank told her softly.
Hazel nodded. “She could have been. But he should have been back by now. Made some kind of...contact that he was still alive.” No one disagreed at the table.
“Do we have any idea where to begin?” Leo asked, looking around the table.

Nico moaned in pain as the chains that shackled him tugged again. He was beat up and bloody, for an earth goddess, Gaea could be pretty violent. You would think she had someone else do her dirty work, but no, there she was, slowly torturing Nico.
He kept forcing his hopes out that his friends might come and find him. As much as he wanted to live, there were so many reasons to let him just die here. For one, he wasn’t important. It was obvious he wasn’t the seventh in the prophecy, therefore it couldn’t be bad if he died.
Second, he knew what Gaea’s plan was. She was trying to lure them into finding him. But she won’t let Nico go, she’ll keep him and let one of her supporters possess his mind so that he could go and kill the demigods of the prophecy. And the only way to stop him would be to slay him.
Nico would rather be dead than be forced to fight his friends.
A boy walked into the room. He was probably only a few years older than Nico, possibly seventeen, shaggy blond hair covering his eyes. His clothes were threadbare, and a bright celestial bronze sword swung at his side.
“Hello, Nico,” he grinned.
Nico didn’t respond, unwilling to even pretend to cooperate with the one who was going to kill him in a few moments. Alec.
Alec shot him a look. “Oh, no manners, have we?” he said in that taunting tone while sliding at his sword and poking it in Nico’s side. He was aware of a warm liquid beginning to trickle down from where the poke was.
Before Nico could move, or react in any way, Alec stuck the sword just under his heart, not deep enough for the wound to be fatal, but enough for it to feel like it. Nico stifled a scream and his back arched in pain.
Alec walked away silently. Before long, Nico heard a voice he never thought he would hear again.
“Nico...?”
“Percy?” Nico gasped, barely able to choke out any words.