Everyone Deserves to be Happy (Solangelo)

Prophecy? Quest? Calypso?(Will)

He saw Leo sitting in a sewer, the darkness and rumble of cars hiding his sobs.

He saw Leo walking into Camp Half Blood, trying to add humor to the situation so he wouldn't seem as scared.

He saw Leo rebuilding Festus, taking so much care in each piece.

Leo was in Rome, defending Hazel and Frank from automatons.

And finally, Nico saw Leo on an island, kissing a beautiful girl and then promising on the River Styx to be back for her. And then he saw Leo flying away on Festus, off into the distance with...Calypso?

Nico woke with a start, his eyes opening and immediately closing again as the light burned into his dilated pupils.

He sat up, mind ablaze with the revelation.

Leo Valdez was alive.

And Nico was going to find him.

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Will was finishing stitching up one of Connor Stoll's many mysteriously acquired wounds when he heard the soft patter of footsteps behind him. He tied the knot and turned around, expecting to see one of his half-brothers with a pile of towels or bandages or something. Instead, he saw Nico di Angelo, looking even less rested and much more frantic than he had two days earlier when Will had forced him to go to sleep.

"Nico!" Will exclaimed "You're awake! Thank the gods!"

"Will there's something really important I have to- wait. What do you mean 'thank the gods'?"

"Nico." Will looked at him a little incredulously, even though he knew that Nico couldn't possibly know what happened while he was asleep. "You've been asleep for 48 hours. You've been leaking shadow almost nonstop. We had no idea what was going on until Hades (for gods'sake) showed up and stopped you from actually melting."

"What! Hades was here?"

Connor butted in. "Yeah! He scared the pants off of Mr. D. Good times, good times."

Nico gave Connor a withering look, but it quickly melted into a smile when he trained his eyes on Will.

Will, however, barely acknowledged the glance. It was not the time for fawning over Nico. No. But he couldn't really ignore the way his eyes lit up when he smiled-no. Not the time.

Will looked at Connor. "Can you assemble the Counselors? And Mr. D? I think we need to have a meeting."

"Sure," Connor got up. "I'll um...leave you two to it, I suppose."

"What's happening?" Nico looked at Will, with an intense gaze.

"Okay. So." Will suddenly felt very interested in his fingernails, but he forced himself to look Nico in the eye. "When I told you go to the infirmary, I knew it was serious, but not just how severe your shadow-I don't know what to call it other than poisoning-had become. After Tartarus, and the pomegranate seeds, and all the shadow traveling. Nico, I'm not really sure how you're alive, honestly. And so when you finally slept, and I mean a real sleep, your body just kind of gave up. You might be the most powerful half-blood I've ever met, but you're not a god. You were leaking shadow, and your eyes, when we tried to open them, were completely black. You-you weren't quite human. At least for a few hours. So we called Hades. He said that this was necessary, and while abnormal, simple. A cleansing, he called it."

"Cleansing me of what?" Nico's voice almost broke. "I already knew I was a monster."

"No!" Will's fury surprised him. "You're an angel, just like your name! Do you think any of us would be here if not for you? No! You're not a monster Nico."

"Then what am I?"

"You're a hero, you dumb idiot," Will felt himself almost cry. "Nico. You're the bravest man I've ever known."

Nico's response was drowned out by the crash of Jason slamming open the door.

"Council is ready!" He looked at Nico and Will, standing so close together and Will swore he could see the ghost of a grin flit across his face. "Am I...interrupting something?"

"NO!" They answered together, slightly to quickly.

"Fine!" Jason said, bemusedly. "Geez!"

But as he opened the door for them, Will swore he could hear Jason muttering something about a bet with Percy, and solangelo, whatever that was...for days?

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The Counselor meeting came to order in the usual chaos that was the meeting room.

Jake Mason of Cabin 9 was out of his body cast. Finally. (It had taken Will ages to figure how body casts worked). But he would be likely to get back in it if he kept making tiny dragons out of celestial bronze that shot out a surprising amount of fire. And by surprising, he meant terrifying.

Clarisse was sharpening her sword. And her axe was in a pile of weapons next to her, along with her staff, dagger, and...yeah whatever else. Weapon's weren't really his thing.

Jason was there, of course, sniggering with Percy about whatever they had been talking about earlier, while their girlfriends looked on in a cocktail of disbelief and annoyance.

Katie Gardner was there as well, pruning a rose bush, seemingly unaware of the fact that it was polka dotted pink and purple.

Will couldn't even see the rest of the Cabin. It was just a mix of faces he didn't really know and voices he couldn't hear.

"ORDER!" Chiron yelled, and magically, it happened. Will often wished he had that power. Not charmspeak. Something...subtler. "Some of you may be aware that Nico di Angelo has mentioned that he knows the whereabouts of Leo Valdez-"

"What?" Percy exclaimed. "I thought...he let us think..."

Jason broke in. "We don't want Leo to be dead. But...I thought he was?"

Nico stood up, and as pale and emaciated as he was, he still stood out as the strongest in the room.

He took a deep rattling breath. You can do this Nico. I believe in you.

"When we first heard of Leo's death, I didn't really understand it. Nothing made sense. I can feel when people die. It's like a reflex, you might say, to check. I felt Leo die. I knew he was gone." It suddenly felt like the temperature in the room dropped 10 degrees, but Nico looked unaffected. He stared straight ahead, talking to no one. "But then, it was like a blip on my radar. He was alive, but only for a second. I was so confused, I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, so I just let Leo be dead. It sounds awful, but death is not fair. I know someone here who understands that. But when I went to the infirmary, I was sent a dream, by the gods. I saw Leo. His life, his entire being, who he really was. And I saw his end. But then, his story continued."

The room was deathly silent, the only sounds of distant conversation held in the camp.

"Leo is with Calypso. He was on Ogygia, last I saw. But he's flying away right now. On Festus."

"WHAT?" Percy stood up, his chair screeching back with an awful creak. When he spoke, his words came out in a torrent. "Chiron I have to be part of the quest I need to find him!"

"Patience, Percy." Chiron spoke calmly, considering the situation. "We do not even know the quest yet. There has been no prophecy." He smiled, but there was a storm behind his eyes.

"And don't forget that the gods have chosen Nico di Angelo."