Percy Jackson and the Olympians #5 : The Last Olympian - MISSING SCENES

What Is The Point? [Mid-Chapter 7]

"How do you expect this to work?" Nico asked, a bit irritable as he leaned against the resting hellhound. Percy rolled his eyes. "You're really pessimistic, you know that?" he asked rhetorically. Of course Nico knew he was pessimistic. He might not have been the sharpest tool in the shed, but he wasn't an idiot. He had enough self-awareness to know that not everyone had such a bleak outlook on life. Then again, not everyone lost their older sister to a bleak fate when they were already going through it...

"It's a reasonable question" Nico defended himself, eliciting a small chuckle from Percy. Had this been the previous year, the older demigod probably would've been a bit afraid over the idea of the younger being upset. After all, he had wanted to kill (or at least get revenge on) his cousin ever since Bianca had died. Percy had made the mistake of promising to keep the girl safe, so while her death wasn't actually his fault, Nico had still blamed him. And wow, that kid could be scary when he needed to be. But, that was last year, and he had since chilled out. Percy didn't feel like he was in danger anymore. "Besides, hasn't the satyr been missing for a while?" Nico continued. "What makes you think he'll help us?"

"I have an empathy link with him" Percy insisted, a tiny bit irritated over the fact that Nico had either forgotten or didn't care. He didn't like having the same conversation with the same person more than once. "If anyone is gonna have a chance of getting connected to him, it's gonna be me" he continued, hoping he wasn't coming across as egotistical. He really wasn't- He just knew he had a bigger likelihood of getting in touch with the satyr than others might. "You get to relax in the meantime, so I don't know why you're complaining"

"I'm not complaining, I'm just raising a valid point" Nico responded, feeling annoyance and mild anger slowly boiling up in his stomach. There was also anxiety mixed in there, which resulted overall in him just being extremely stressed out. "We don't exactly have endless time" he continued, pulling out his dagger and fiddling with it to keep his hands doing something, because he would explode if he didn't. "Kronos could strike at any moment. We don't have the time to sit around waiting for a goat dude because you don't feel like singing"

"I am a horrible singer" Percy responded. Nico wasn't sure he believed him. He remembered hearing from some of the Apollo kids that it's actually extremely rare for someone to be completely tone-deaf. Sure, some people were more skilled singers than others, but virtually everyone could hold a tune if they really tried. It seemed to him more like Percy was embarrassed and didn't want to sing, rather than he was actually a bad singer. However, to spare the older boy at least a little bit (he still felt guilty over how cruel he was to him previously), he decided to not say anything, instead just giving a sarcastic chuckle in response.

They sat in silence for a while, Percy occasionally calling out Grover's name or muttering to himself, presumably trying to talk to his friend through the empathy link. Nico still didn't see the point in doing that, but he also didn't care enough to say anything else.

"Thanks for coming with" Percy said suddenly, glancing over to the younger demigod.

"Yeah" Nico replied with a weak smile. "You're welcome"