It took Nico a week to get himself into the Blue Ward. It took a firecracker, a wad of gum in his math teacher's hair, two fist-fights, a flooded bathroom and adjoining hallway, and a minor explosion in his chemistry class before he finally succeeded. In the meantime, he checked in with Camp Half-Blood twice, and with Jason four times.
Poor Jason was bored to death watching and waiting, and very clearly wanted some action. Now, if anything went wrong, he'd get the action he so wanted.
Percy was worried. The rest of Camp Half-Blood less so, which was how Nico preferred it. It was nice to have people concerned about his well-being, but too many became over-bearing.
Brooklyn House was less worried than they usually were, in large part because they were getting ready for their own fight. When Nico had figured out the connection between Apophis's other attacks, he'd given them what they needed to figure out where the snake would be striking next: the Dallas Museum of Art. Nico had debated with himself whether or not to join them for that, but in the end, the decision was taken from him.
"That is it, Mr. diAngelo!" screamed his chemistry teacher when the smoke finally cleared. "I'll have you in the Blue Ward for this!"
That announcement was met by gasps of horror from the other students, who at first had been trying to warn Nico to stay in line, then lately, chose to ignore him, so as not to be associated with his bad behavior by any of their teachers.
"Big deal," returned Nico, while mentally thinking. About freaking time! I was starting to think I'd have to set someone on fire to get myself sent there.
He expected a reply from Anubis, but was only met with silence, and found that mildly insulting. Anubis was still in his head. He still possessed the god, and his powers. Anubis just wasn't putting as much of his consciousness into his demigod host these days. Nico knew he shouldn't be annoyed. Anubis was busy trying to save the world. And on top of that he was off plotting with Walt too, about that stuff that was going to get all three of them killed once Sadie found out what Anubis and Walt were up to.
So he squelched down his disappointment with Anubis's silence and spoke to his teacher instead.
"Oh no, not the Blue Ward," he said, and rolled his eyes. "Anything but that."
"You'll sing a different song once you're there young man!"
Nico responded as a true teenager would, proving that he was definitely thirteen now rather than twelve. "Fuck you!"
That would have gotten him drug to the dean's office by his ear back in the day. Now it just got him marched there with his teacher gripping his arm and muttering under his breath about the youth of today. Nico didn't improve his situation any by laughing about this. Not that he was trying to improve his situation. The Blue Ward was where he wanted to end up.
He had a meeting with the dean, who was a gray eyed man, on the old side, but not anciently so. Those eyes reminded him uncomfortably of a child of Annabeth's eyes, but considering the sort of organization he was working for, Nico thought it unlikely that the guy actually was a son of Athena.
Rather than yell at him, like Nico was expecting, Dean Landin regarded him coldly for several moments, locking eyes with him. Then he opened up a folder and thumbed through it.
"You've been quite busy these past two weeks, Mr. diAngelo," he said at last.
"Not as busy as your mom," countered Nico, still playing the rebellious teen. It was more fun than he expected.
Landin stiffened and his gray eyes grew stormy. Then he looked back down at Nico's rap sheet. "Heart of Liberty was founded to help special needs children, as you and every other child who we welcome into our walls knows. We expect a certain amount of acting out. We know that children like to test limits. But you have tested those limits excessively."
"But you have tested those limits excessively," mimicked Nico.
"Do you think to mock me?"
"Do you think to mock me?"
Landin glared at him. Nico glared right back. Then Landin laughed.
"Normally," he said, "we wait a bit longer to make certain a student is Blue Ward material. But I think in your case, no more waiting is necessary. Only a demigod has such a high capacity for getting into trouble."
Nico wasn't quite sure how to respond to that so instead of speaking he just gave Landin a weird look.
"Tell me, Mr. diAngelo, were you aware of what you are?" asked Landin.
"I'll answer your question, if you answer one of mine first."
"Oh? Ask then."
"How flammable is the Blue Ward?"
Landin scowled at him. "Very funny, Mr. diAngelo."
"The only thing that I think is funny here is your face."
"Now, tell me, do you know what you are?"
"You didn't answer my question, so I'm not going to answer yours."
"Who is your father, boy?"
Nico bristled. "I don't have to tell you."
"Do you know him?"
"I know your mom."
"What would you do if I told you that your father was a god?"
"Tell you I'm an atheist."
"Your father was a god, boy," said Lanin.
"I'm an atheist."
"We're not sure which god yet. You don't fall into any of the usual perimeters for the gods whose children we've seen before, but don't worry. We'll probably figure out who he was."
"Is this some new weird punishment technique?" asked Nico. "You're planning on role-playing me into being repentant? Because if so, I'll tell you right now, there's no way in hell that's going to work."
"You see things that no one else seems able to see," Landin told him seriously, ignoring how Nico was making fun of everything he said. "Monsters and magic creatures, strange people riding chariots through midday traffic that no one else finds strange, or people who seem more like mutated freaks with green skin or dog ears, or some other such ridiculousness, that no one else notices."
Nico fell silent at this and gave Landin his best suspicious gaze. He wanted Landin to confirm his own suspicions about him, but he wanted Landin to come to that conclusion by his (Nico's) reactions rather than by his words. It would look too weird if he suddenly became too cooperative, so Nico decided it was better to keep pretending he knew nothing. Landin gave a small smile, taking Nico's silence for acceptance.
"You have a hard time reading, but a few times, you've looked at something in your history class, something that was written in an ancient or dead language, and you were able to read it more clearly and easily than you've ever read anything written in English. You can't sit still, because of your ADHD, because your mind and body are hard-wired for battle. When someone attacks you, even though you've never had any self defense training, you move like you've been training to defend yourself for years."
"So what?" asked Nico sulkily. "That doesn't mean anything."
"So you admit that you recognize yourself in that description."
"I didn't admit anything!" shouted Nico. "You don't know what you're talking about!"
"I know things that you can't even imagine, boy," said the dean.
"Why? Because your dad was a god too? The god of knowledge?"
Landin's expression darkened. "My mother, actually. The goddess of wisdom and war. Ironic how I'm using her spheres of influence against her."
Say what? Nico was having a hard time following. Landin had pretty much just admitted to being a son of Athena, and even though he didn't really feel like a demigod, Nico could believe it. Weaker demigods, even if they were children of the twelve Olympians, often didn't feel much different than normal humans. But even if he was a weak demigod, he was still a demigod . . . so why exactly was he trying to wage war against his mother? Was he one of Kronos's leftover minions, still fighting the not-so-good fight even though it had already been lost? Or was he something else? Was he working for some other threat against the gods that they didn't even know about yet?
What do you make of this, Anubis? asked Nico. He waited for an answer. Anubis?
Sorry, busy right now, Anubis told him in a strained mental voice.
Okay, don't worry about it, Nico told Anubis. To the dean, he said, "Dude . . . are you on crack or something? Are you messing with me, or do you seriously believe what you're saying?"
"Oh, I believe it alright," Landin told him. "More than that, I can tell you're starting to believe it too."
"No, I'm not. You're crazy."
Landin smiled. "Thankfully, what I need from you is not dependent on your belief. Nor on your cooperation -"
"That's good, because there's no way in hell I'm cooperating with you," said Nico. "You're the one who belongs in a special needs facility, not me. And in your case that special needs facility should be a mental institution."
After that, Nico was escorted into the Blue Ward. All the way into it. He kept up a stream of commentary on their way down, repeatedly insulting Landin's mother, and the security measures. "Are you kidding? There's no way that laser system thing's real," and "Really, dude? Seriously? A retina scanner? You know all someone has to do to get past those things is to cut out one of your eyes and use that!"
He watched with interest as they reached the door that he hadn't been able to get past on his last visit here. Landin pressed one hand against the door and the smooth material it was made out of lit up, showing circuitry underneath. It must have been some sort of palm scanner, because moments later, the door slid open. The door was six inches thick, Nico noted as they stepped through. Burning through that with his blood would be a pain and a half, but it wasn't impossible.
Abruptly, Nico was aware of his own growing nervousness. Panic was trying rise up inside him, his instincts urging him to turn around and flee. He hesitated and stopped walking as he tried to figure out where these feelings were coming from.
Nico was far from being a coward. He knew he didn't always act intelligently, but no one had ever accused him of being cowardly. He'd been willing to give up his own life so Bianca could live again, been willing to traverse the Underworld looking for a way to bring her back. He'd defied his father, practically dared his father to incinerate him. He'd faced monsters and psychotic magicians. And yeah, he'd faltered in the face of that last point on the list, but in his defense, Aziza had tortured him and almost killed him on several occasions, and he was a bit post traumatic about that mess.
It was his instincts that were causing him to feel fear now, he realized. His senses were gathering information and sending it straight to the parts of his brain that controlled his survival. He tried to break it down in his mind as he started walking again, but Anubis chose that moment to show some interest.
What's wrong, Nico?
Not sure yet. Hang on, I'm trying to figure it out.
He didn't see anything disturbing, so that ruled out sight. Sound . . . he didn't hear anything suspicious. Footsteps and machinery, but no screams of pain or terror. For scent . . . he could smell antiseptic. A sterile smell, like in hospitals, which he guessed was enough to put anyone on edge. He could taste it in the air too. Disgusting. As for feeling . . .
Nico froze again as he realized what was wrong. It was like he'd stepped into a vacuum. Or some sort of power dampening field. His demigod powers had been weakened, if not taken away completely. He couldn't be sure without testing them, and he couldn't test them in front of Landin without giving himself away.
This is not good.
Don't worry. You are more than just a demigod, Nico, Anubis tried to reassure him.
I know, but this . . . it's disconcerting.
You'll be okay. You're not alone in this.
That did make Nico feel a lot better as he started walking again. He followed Landin down a long corridor. The walls around them seemed old and were made of stone. There were lots of doors on either side of them, but most of them were closed. He did get a glimpse into one when a woman in a research coat stepped out of it. Behind her he saw hundreds of eyes. Eyes that looked to have been cut out of photographs. Just the eyes.
Nothing weird about that, he thought to Anubis, who he could still feel watching through his eyes. He heard the god laugh softly at his sarcasm, but this time it didn't make him feel any better.
It disturbed Nico even more than the lack of his demigod powers had, but Nico had recognized many of those eyes. The wise gray eyes of Athena's children, the burning intensity only found in the eyes of Ares' scions, Herme's kids' mischievous baby blues, the beautiful many colored eyes of Aphrodite's heirs, each different fleck of color like a different gemstone . . . Those were demigod eyes.
Thankfully he didn't see any electric blue ones, like Thalia's and Jason's, or deep sea green ones like Percy's, but any relief he felt over that was drowned by the dread from seeing another type of eyes. Because half of the photographs showed unnaturally blue eyes that seemed devoid of all sanity. Eyes like Kratos's.