Inheritance - a sequel to Shelter

Supernova

When Nico follows Will into the rec room, Apollo is staring at the blank television screen. He's perched on the back of the couch, his hands limp on his knees and feet on the couch cushions.

"Dad?" Will says, then gives the room a quick glance. Nico meets his eyes, lifting his eyebrows, and then darts his gaze back to where Apollo heaves a long sigh. Will approaches. He sets his hand tentatively on Apollo's shoulder. "Where's Liz?"

Apollo sighs again and covers Will's hand with his own briefly before slipping off the back of the couch onto the cushions. He pats the space beside him and Will gestures for Nico to join them. Nico takes a seat on the smaller couch perpendicular to the one Apollo sits on and Will joins him.

It's a long moment before Apollo finally looks away from the screen and at them. He looks weary and almost humble - quite different than his usual happy-go-lucky nature. "I had Zephyr take her back home. I only meant to show her the camp, give her something to look forward to, you know?" He's quiet again, pensive.

"You want to talk about it? We heard the conversation with ..."

Apollo stops Will from saying Aphrodite's name by raising his hand. "Most of that was ancient history. But ..." He sighs again and stares at his feet. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to talk about it. It's really just more rehashing the same patterns that have been going on for eons. What I wouldn't do to have quiet life for once, settle down or something, be happy."

"They, the other gods, want you to rise up again?"

Apollo shrugs. "Didn't work out so well the last time they tried. We were all punished. Poseidon and I got the worst of it. Well, queen bitch had it pretty harsh, but she was freed pretty quickly."

"What happened?" Nico asks, surprising himself by asking that aloud.

Apollo looks at him and smiles, showing his bright personality isn't buried very far. Apparently showing an interest in him is all it takes to perk him back up. "Well, that was the second time I had my immortality stripped. It was only for a year, but it was a real drag. Poseidon had to fortify the walls around Troy by hand in service to the asshole Laomedon and I had to tend his sheep." He furrows his eyebrows, not meeting their eyes. "I know it doesn't sound so bad, but it wasn't enough for Laomedon to humiliate me with the loss of my power. He ... took liberties with my new station and I don't like recalling them. But despite all that, he was also a swindler. He refused to pay us for our service when it was complete. So many people died for that idiot's foolhardiness. I sent a plague upon his city and Poseidon, a monster."

Nico studies Apollo. He senses a deeper suffering that Apollo hides from others with his youthful exuberance, but more than that, it seems Apollo's had time to process his wounds, to heal from them, and he's mostly just tired of dwelling in the past. Nico thinks he can empathize with that.

"Father's always been harsh on his godly sons, but I think he's singled me out as the one most in need of 'discipline'. I dunno. I've told you before he's repressed and it's eating him up on the inside, making him more like the tyrant his own father was. I wish I knew how to help him ... how to diagnose what the root cause is and deal with it. I don't want to take his throne, I just want him to be the best ruler he can. He started out not so bad and even when it started to go downhill, it was still tolerable, but since the great prophecy happened, he started reining in his brothers too ... and blaming my Oracle, misunderstanding how prophecies work ..." Apollo stops talking a moment, then focuses on Nico, his bright blue eyes seeming to see beyond Nico's physical form. "You, Nico. You've got something on your mind, right? Something other than me and my daddy issues. Let's change the subject. Tell me what's up."

Nico shifts in his seat, only now realizing Will has draped his arm around Nico's back, his hand holding onto Nico's hip. He fights to keep from flushing or pushing Will away. The truth is that he loves it when Will cuddles with him, but the public aspect, right in front of Will's dad, it's not easy to get used to. Still, he needs to tell somebody what has been happening, and ... he needs to test his powers. He's not sure what count asUnderworld powers and what may just be demigod abilities. He hopes to hell he still got something left, even if it is just hyperalertness in battle.

"The past couple of days," Nico starts, his voice growing less timid as he goes on, "I've had some dreams, visions of things happening. When I passed out earlier it wasn't for no reason; I was being summoned by Hecate. She was in the realm between dreams and death and Hazel was there too. Hecate said my father sent her to give us a choice." He takes a deep breath and releases it, fingers digging into his knees. "We could go to the Lotus Casino, choose an everlasting sleep, or come back to the real world without our Underworld powers. We chose to come back."

He doesn't miss the sharp intake of breath coming from Will while Apollo furrows his eyebrows. "I don't understand. Why would Hades want to take away your powers or separate you from the world?"

The dream from before seems to sharpen in Nico's mind, it had gotten fuzzy when Hecate summoned him, but he recalls it now. He meets Apollo's gaze and then stares at the floor. It's easier to share what he knows when not under such intense scrutiny.

"I had a dream. Hermes flew into my father's throne room and delivered a message to him. Basically Zeus had said that if he or Hades left the Underworld, they were to be thrown into Tartarus." Nico thinks back, absently rubbing the knees of his jeans. "Then Persephone showed up and Hades said it was too early for her yearly descent, but Hermes looked up the time and confirmed it was fall. Hades was really angry and said he thinks the remnants of Kronos got sucked into chaos through Tartarus." He looks back at Apollo, his forehead wrinkled in thought. "Did you know about that? I mean, I heard Zephyros and Mr. D talking about it, but ..."

"What do you mean?" Will interjects. "I'm lost." He looks from Nico to Apollo for clarification.

Apollo remains silent, though he jerks his head for Nico to continue.

"I don't know why I seem to be the only demigod who notices, but it feels like the last two years just happened overnight." He catches the look Will throws at him, like he's seriously worrying about Nico's state of mind. Nico tries hard to not roll his eyes and resigns himself to telling Will the truth. "About the question you asked me, I don't recall it yet. I have access to my memories from the past two years, but they're all jumbled and it's hard to work out what happened when."

Will looks like he's been suckerpunched, but Nico can tell as Will searches his face for any sign of misunderstanding that he believes him.

"About Hermes," Apollo interrupts, still not saying anything about the time skip. "Asclepius was with him the last I heard ..." He stiffens his posture as he waits for Nico to tell him more.

He's not sure what's going on with Apollo. If the selective conversation has anything to do with him being under control from Olympus, like he had been when they were beginning their quest for the Oracle or if it's something else.

"That's how Hermes found out about the threat of Tartarus. Asclepius was apparently trying to reach you, on Hades's behalf, through Will's dreams, but he was intercepted and made to send the message before getting thrown into Tartarus himself."

Nico's breath leaves him in a rush as Will knocks him to the floor, and rolls with him under the couch. The temperature rises, and even with Will blocking his view, the room floods with piercing light.

"Close your eyes," Will says, wrapping his arms around Nico and holding him so his face is buried against Will's chest.

Even behind his eyelids, he sees colors changing from red to orange and then yellow until they disappear into darkness. His heart hammers, pulse pounding in his temples, but Will's familiar smell and his weight pressing against Nico keeps him present.

"Can I open them now?"

Will twists as if looking over his shoulder, still holding onto Nico, and turns back again, his voice tender and sad. "Yeah. He's gone."

Nico opens his eyes. It's dark as if Apollo took all the light with him when he left. "What was that all about?" Nico asks. Apollo going supernova in front of two demigods in the rec room of the big house without a hint of a warning makes Nico uneasy.

"Let's go back to Hades cabin," Will says, "and I'll tell you what I know."