Nico and Aphrodite's Scarf

Chapter Eight

Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia sat on a city bus to the train station. They had borrowed (cough, stolen, cough) the camp van, then took it into the city. They abandoned it since they were out of gas and it would go quicker on a bus anyways. It was there that they decided that the best way to get into the Underworld was going through DOA Recording Studios, short for Dead On Arrival. Some would even say that there's no hope for survival, you're dead on arrival, after all, but both Percy and Annabeth have done it before. They weren't going to be afraid this time. The only thing they were nervous about was the whole Nico and Underworld situation. Anyways, it was off to LA they went.

On the city bus, Percy was unfortunately stuck in between Annabeth (which wasn't bad at all), and some random little boy that was picking his nose and eating his boogers. That was bad, if you can't tell. At one point, the kid just stopped and stared at Percy, making Percy feel very uncomfortable. "Uh, 'sup, kid," Percy said.

The kid blinked, facial expression not changing from its look that clearly said, I am dead inside. "Your eyes are weird," The kid replied.

"Oh," Percy said, blushing slightly. His and his two companions' eyes were still pink. He was going to retort with the oh so clever comeback of, 'no your eyes are weird!' But the kid's eyes were just a regular brown color. So instead, Percy just looked down and began fidgeting with his hands.

Finally, they arrived at the train station, Percy happily getting off of the bus and as far away from the nose-picker as he could. "That seemed like I nice boy you were sitting by," Annabeth teased. Percy just shuddered in response.

"Train leaves in fifteen minutes," Thalia reminded the other two, "We should get going."

Annabeth nodded. Just as they were about to head inside the train station, they heard a voice behind them. "Wow, rebellious! How cute! But I can't have you go in there, so I'd stop right there if I were you. Gods, I knew you were acting suspicious earlier," The voice said.

Percy's blood boiled at the sound of the voice and he knew who it was immediately. He sighed and turned around to face... Nico. Who else would it be? Nico had his arms crossed and his face wore a smirk (that was on there about 99.9999% of the time).

"Nico," Annabeth growled.

Nico just rolled his eyes. "Follow me, toys," Nico said.

"First of all, we are anything but your toys. Far from it. So don't call us that," Thalia snapped.

"And second," Annabeth added, "If your dumb brain isn't processing what's happening right now, we are now longer under your spell and we will no longer do what you say without question. So don't try bossing us around."

"Whatever," Nico said, "I could honestly care less if you followed me to a secluded spot or not. I mean, I don't care if all these mortals get hurt if we were to fight. You on the other hand?"

Percy scowled at the younger boy, looking around at all the innocent passerby's. Nico was right... sadly. They needed to go somewhere private so no one would get hurt in whatever was about to go down. Even if Nico didn't care about them, Percy did, and he was sure Annabeth and Thalia did too. "Lead the way," Percy sighed.

Nico's face remained in the same smirk as he turned around and began to lead the way to an empty alleyway besides the train station. Broken glass laid on the ground and rusty green dumpsters lined the walls.

"Nico, why are you doing this?" Annabeth said, her voice breaking a bit. "I... I thought we were friends. We were all friends. But all the sudden you're doing stuff like this and... Nico, why?"

Nico sighed, looking down. "It is beyond your understanding. All you need to know is that power like this, the incredible power this stupid scarf holds, should not go to waste," He said. He pulled Aphrodite's light pink scarf out of his pocket and Percy held back a groan. He really had to bring that thing? They were good as much as doomed already.

Percy uncapped Riptide, getting in a fighting ready stance. Annabeth did the same with her drakon bone sword and Thalia knocked her bow with an arrow. "Nico, you're outnumbered. Give us the scarf and let us be," Percy said.

With three, angry, hormonal, teenage demigods outnumbering you with weapons drawn, a regular person would have been horrified. But much to their confusion, Nico was nothing of the sorts. Instead, he just let out an amused laugh. "Oh, you three really are funny! You really think some tacky weapons can hurt me? And do you still forget the power I wield?"

Percy was a bit offended by Nico adding in 'tacky,' as he was sure Riptide's feelings must have been hurt by that.

"Nico," Annabeth begged, her voice steady, "Please." She was still trying to go the peaceful way, but she looked ready to kill with that sword of hers if it was necessary. Nico still was their friend after all, right? At least he was a year ago.

"I'm not going to listen to your petty cries. They're almost just as pathetic as you!" Nico said.

Percy had had it. Nico had taken control of him, used magic on him, acted like a monster, hurt people, but insulting his girlfriend had finally crossed the line. "Why you little-"

"Oh, be quiet, Percy," Nico rolled his eyes, "As if you are going to actually hurt anyone!"

Stupid charmspeak. Remember Aphrodite charmspeaking Percy, Thalia, and Annabeth yesterday? That whenever Nico says their name they have a strong desire to go to them and be very loving? Yeah, that was taking effect to Percy now.

Percy's eyes glazed over and his sword dropped to the ground. He began to walk towards Nico with a big, goofy grin on his face. "You're right, Master. I would never hurt you," Percy said.

Nico had seemed to have forgotten about the whole name/charmspeak thing, so when Percy said this, he was surprised. But he quickly remembered, glad that it had worked.

Nico smiled triumphantly as Percy walked closer and closer. Closer and closer...

Chapter eight for you guys! I also have a new cover so.. yeah. Kinda trashy but it's something so yeah. And guess what guys? There's one one more chapter till this is done! Yay! I know I'm the only one celebrating right now... sorry. But thank you for reading! It's very appreciated and I hope you're looking forward to chapter nine!