NEVER BE THE SAME . . . percy jackson

twenty nine: the son of pluto.

PERCY AND NICO shook hands. They studied each other warily until Nico let go of Percy's hand and offered his to Brooklyn. She took it, shaking it with a surprising amount of firmness. She was just so good at everything, it seemed.

Nico didn't appear scary. He was skinny and sloppy in his rumpled black clothes. His hair looked like he'd just rolled out of bed.

But there was something about him that unsettled Brooklyn. There was an inkling of a memory in her mind — eleven pm on a balcony, the moon above her, smoking a cigarette, standing against a warm person, someone appearing from the shadows with shaggy black hair . . .

But as soon as the memory came, it faded, leaving behind a throbbing pain in her head. She let go of Nico's hand, rubbing one of her temples to get rid of the pain.

Percy scowled, as if he had the same pain in his head that Brooklyn had. "I — I know you." He looked over at her. "Right?"

"Bold of you to assume I'm remembering more than you," she said. "But, yeah, you do look familiar."

Nico raised his eyebrows. "Do I?" He looked at Hazel for explanation.

"Um . . . Brooks and Percy have lost their memories." She told him what had happened since they had arrived at the gates.

"So, Nico . . ." she continued carefully, "I thought . . . you know, you travel all over. Maybe you've met demigods like them before, or . . ."

Nico's expression turned dark.

"This story about Gaea's army," he said, which felt like deflecting. "You warned Reyna?"

Percy nodded. "Who is Gaea, anyway?"

"She's the earth goddess." Nico glanced at the ground as if it might be listening. "The oldest goddess of all. She's in a deep sleep most of the time, but she hates the gods and their children."

"Mother Earth . . . is evil?" Brooklyn asked.

"Very," Nico said gravely. "She convinced her son, the Titan Kronos — um, I mean, Saturn — to kill his dad, Uranus, and take over the world. The Titans ruled for a long time. Then the Titans' children, the Olympian gods, overthrew them."

"That story seems familiar," Percy sounded surprised, like an old memory had partially surfaced. Brooklyn knew the feeling. She was remembering something . . . but there were a lot of empty holes in her memory. "But I don't think I ever heard the part about Gaea."

Nico shrugged. "She got mad when the gods took over. She took a new husband — Tartarus, the spirit of the abyss — and gave birth to a race of giants. They tried to destroy Mount Olympus, but the gods finally beat them. At least . . . the first time."

"The first time?" Percy repeated.

Nico glanced at Hazel.

"Last summer," he continued, "Saturn tried to make a comeback. There was a second Titan war. The Romans at Camp Jupiter stormed his headquarters on Mount Othrys, across the bay, and destroyed his throne. Saturn disappeared—" He hesitated, which made Brooklyn frown. Kr-Saturn didn't disappear. He got killed. Right?

"Um, anyway," Nico continued, "Saturn probably faded back to the abyss. We all thought the war was over. Now it looks like the Titans' defeat stirred up Gaea. She's starting to wake. I've heard reports of giants being reborn. If they mean to challenge the gods again, they'll probably start by destroying the demigods . . ."

"You've told Reyna this?" Brooklyn asked.

"Of course." Nico's jaw tensed. "The Romans don't trust me. That's why I was hoping she'd listen to you. Children of Pluto . . . well, no offense, but they think we're even worse than children of Neptune, and especially children of Jupiter. We're bad luck."