Part 1: Nico Crashes a Party
Nico di Angelo was anything but social, and the idea that he would want to take part in the celebratory festivities that marked the one year anniversary of the victory of the Giant War was simply preposterous. It was simply by accident that he returned to Camp Half-Blood on the anniversary. Traveling to and fro from the Underworld and the Mortal Realm often left Nico with a rather murky internal clock, as time was hard to measure down in the Underworld. It was also pure coincidence that he happened to shadow travel inside the Camp boundaries and be bombarded by bright colors and insanely happy campers. He had told himself that it would be a quiet journey, that he was just going to stop in and leave as quickly as possible, but that obviously was not the case.
He had decided recently to make this last stop to Camp Half-Blood. He had a few things of value in the Hades cabin at the Camp, and wanted to retrieve them before he left on his journey. He had no one to say goodbye to there and no one to tell where he was going. He did suppose that he could stop in on Jason and see how he was doing, but Nico always did hate goodbyes. He had planned all of his emotional strength to be used when he stopped by New Rome to tell Hazel goodbye, anyway. He knew that she would try to make him stay, but he simply did not feel like he fit in anywhere. He knew he would be happier traveling around the country - maybe even the world. Perhaps he would actually be able to "find himself," whatever that meant. At any rate, he knew for sure that this would be the last time he would see Camp Half-Blood.
Unfortunately, the Fates had sided against him that day. He had hoped that shadow traveling to the outskirts of the Big House in the evening would leave him some privacy, assuming that most of the campers would be at the campfire. However, he was incredibly annoyed to see that he had appeared into the middle of a cheering crowd. The unexpected landing threw off his balance - he had basically appeared in the same spot as another camper, a boy who looked about his age with very curly black hair and a black hoodie over his orange camp t-shirt.
"Whoa, watch out there," he said as Nico slammed into him and stumbled. The boy grabbed him by the waist and hoisted him back up into a standing position, much to Nico's embarrassment. He scowled and shrank away from the contact, assuming that the moment that the boy laid eyes on him he would recoil in disgust. He didn't expect any less from a camper. Most demigods could sense who he was just by being near him, and would stay far out of his reach. They simply found his presence uncomfortable, or they thought that he was freaky or scary. Stories had quickly spread through the camp about the loner son of Hades whose sister had died, the one who acted like he hated everybody. Nico could always tell when people were talking about him when he entered a room, or when they had stopped talking about him when he walked past them. He was so used to seeing people mime zombies or skeletons crawling out of the Earth to refer to him that he had learned to ignore it. He expected exactly the same from the boy who had just caught him.
But, much to Nico's surprise, his dark brown eyes lit up in recognition. He left one hand resting on his waist, like he didn't want Nico to get out of his sight. "You're that son of Hades!" he exclaimed. It was very different to hear those words being spoken in awe and excitement instead of fear and disgust, so Nico took a while to respond to him through his shock at the unusual greeting he had received.
"Um, yeah. That's me," he said, slowly pushing away the boy's hand from his waist. Nico really wasn't one for extended physical contact.
"Nico di Angelo, right?" he said with a smile, "You're the guy who sailed on the Argo with the Seven of the Great Prophecy. Everybody's been talking about you all week, but nobody thought that you would actually show up."
"Right," he said, looking away from the boy to take in the rest of his surroundings. He was in the middle of a crowd near the Big House. It looked like all the campers had congregated there to watch something, but he couldn't make out what. He was near the back of the crowd, and was too short to see what everybody was staring at in front of him. It seemed like it was something very exciting from the reactions of the campers in front of him, though. Looking to the Big House he saw that it was decorated in both the Greek and Roman colors, with flags strewn along the sides along with balloons and streamers decorating the porch. Hanging from the roof were piñatas in the shape of different monsters. There was one fashioned to look like Medusa with papier-mâché snake hair that looked like someone had busted it open already, along with caricature piñatas of the different giants that were in the Giant War. From what he could tell, it looked like the whole camp had been celebrating for a week straight.
"Um, what exactly is going on here?" asked Nico, temporarily forgetting about the reason he came there in the first place.
The boy raised an eyebrow in disbelief, "You seriously don't know?" he asked, his face taking on a smirk. Nico scowled again at the boy's expression. He had a stupid face, he decided. His hair was incredibly dark, and his complexion looked somewhat Mediterranean, only tanner. Nico could tell that he had striking bone structure with a strong jaw and a long nose, but it was obscured somewhat by his cheeks, which were soft and gave his face a much more youthful look. Just by looking at him Nico couldn't tell who his godly parent was, which only irked him even more. If he knew what kind of demigod he was then Nico would have more information to judge his character on, because as of right then he had absolutely nothing. The boy had already acted completely out-of-place from what Nico had expected, and apparently the boy knew a lot about Nico while Nico knew absolutely nothing about him. And that annoyed him a lot. He decided that the only possible god that the boy could be related to was the god of stupid faces. Nico couldn't remember the name, but he swore that god had to exist.
Nico rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest defensively, "If I knew what was going on, then why in Hades would I ask? Seriously, I don't know. I literally just came here to get my stuff and leave, I wasn't expected to be held up in some... weird, celebration thing," he said.
The boy raised his arms defensively, "Hey, sorry man, didn't mean to offend. It's just that it's been all over the country. Here, New Rome, and Olympus all have their own thing going on to celebrate the anniversary of the victory of the Giant War. Hell, even the mortals can sense the revelry. I didn't know that someone could not know what was going on."
So that was it, thought Nico. He pursed his lips as he looked through the crowd once more, now seeing that what they were looking at was a dramatic recreation of the events that happened during the quest of the Great Prophecy. A bunch of the younger campers were acting as the Seven Demigods as the prophecy, replaying the highlights and victories each one had on the quest. It was incredibly cheesy, with big costumes and dramatic makeup. Two pairs of demigods that both looked around ten or eleven rode piggy-back, growling and pretending they were the twin giants fighting two demigods pretending to be Percy and Jason. People cheered them on as they pretended to create a massive storm that knocked both of the "giants" out cold. Another demigod boy walked up with a stick in his hand. On the very tip of the stick was a pine cone that looked like it was haphazardly glued on. He gave a mighty battle cry and pretended to stab the two Giants that were cowering on the ground. The whole crowd erupted in cheers as the giants pretended to die, their tongues sticking out and their bodies splayed comically on the ground.
"Yeah, go Kyle!" yelled the boy to the younger demigod holding the stick. "My brother," he added with a smile.
Nico suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. It was just his luck that the very last time he planned to go to Camp Half-Blood they would be celebrating what was the suckiest part of his life. He remembered the very battle that they were acting out right then. Well, he barely remembered it, as he was still covering from being trapped in a jar at the time. Oxygen deprivation definitely did not help in creating clear memories. He realized that leaving the Camp was not going to be so easy once everybody noticed that he was there. They would ask him millions of questions about the Seven of the prophecy and the giants and the Argo II and, no, Nico definitely was not patient enough for that.
He turned away, knowing that he had to slip out now if he ever wanted peace or to get out of there without any trouble. He squeezed through the crowd, which wasn't that hard considering that most people shied away from him in the first place. Once he was finally free he started to walk hastily toward the cabins. He didn't stop even when he heard footsteps quickly approaching him, or heard his name being called. But when someone grabbed his shoulder roughly Nico spun around and unsheathed his knife, holding it defensively at his side.
It was only the boy he had bumped into, which he had assumed. He had only taken out his knife to intimidate him, but even that didn't seem to work. The boy gave a quick glance to the knife but paid no attention to it. "Where are you going?" he asked, "You can't leave now, that's kinda ridiculous. I know that every camper here would like to meet you, shake your hand. And you're just gonna ditch the whole place?"
"Yeah, that's the idea," he said, glaring at his hand on his shoulder, "Can you please? You're invading my personal space."
The boy reluctantly let go of his shoulder, frowning, "But, why? Why do you want to leave, you just got here."
Nico sighed. He was really getting sick of this boy, he just wished that he could get him off of his back, "I'm leaving because I only came here to grab a couple of things and go. And I'd also rather not see any familiar faces, it'll lead to awkward questions and good-byes and I just don't want that."
He turned to walk away once more, heading towards the Hades cabin. He heard the footsteps of the boy following him. "Are you talking about the Seven? 'Cause they aren't here. Not this week anyway, they're in New Rome."
"Even better," he deadpanned, not looking back. He approached the Cabin, painted black with torches decorating the outside. A green glow from the Greek Fire gave an eerie atmosphere to the cabin, like something that fit right in at the Underworld. He walked and looked around. He groaned to find the boy in the Cabin with him.
"Who even are you?" he demanded. He remembered Percy telling him about when Nico was younger and how he used to follow him like a shadow - if Nico was half as bad as this guy then he definitely felt bad for Percy. No wonder Percy never liked him back. How could anyone like an annoying kid that wouldn't leave you alone?
"I'm Daniel," he said, giving a small wave, "Son of Dionysus. It's just that I've heard a lot about you and I really think-"
"Son of Dionysus, huh?" Nico interrupted, "No wonder you're so annoying."
Surprisingly, Daniel took this assertion really well. He chuckled, his face lighting up in a big grin. "Yeah, I get that a lot," he said, then bit his lip bashfully. Nico found himself staring at him, but then shook himself out of it and turned away, walking towards the only bed in the Cabin. Next to the bed was a dark mahogany nightstand. He studied intently, trying to give Daniel the impression that he didn't want to talk, but he obviously wasn't getting the message. He grabbed the Hades figurine that was on the nightstand and tucked it into his jacket pocket. Opening the drawer of the nightstand, he found a deck of mythomagic cards along with a handful of golden drachmas. Upon the sight of deck of cards he immediately felt a pang in his chest at the memories of what felt like so long ago. He opened the cardboard container that held the deck and looked in. Sure enough, it was still there. It was a picture of him and Bianca taken in a photobooth from the Lotus Casino. It was just one of the five pictures that they took there, but he couldn't remember what happened to the rest. He stowed it back into the deck and put that in his other pocket, along with the handful of coins.
He then stood on the bed and reached for the shelf that was above the bed. He rubbed his hand along what looked like an empty shelf. Panic started to set in when all he felt was a thick coat of dust, but then he finally felt it. He grabbed the little plastic card, rubbing it on his black jeans to wipe off the dust that had accumulated on it. Cleaning it off allowed the vibrant red color to appear, with the big golden arches logo standing out proudly against the background. Nico would never dream of traveling without his McDonald's loyalty card.
Nico hopped off the bed and brushed off his hands. He had thought that he had left a couple other things in the cabin, but he supposed that he had already cleaned the majority out. He took another sweeping glance around to double-check. Seeing nothing, he then turned his attention to Daniel, who was still in the cabin. He had his hands in his hoodie pockets, staring at the floor boredly. Nico took a good look at the boy, actually taking in his features. Now that he knew who his godly parent was, Nico could definitely tell that he was a son of Dionysus. He looked like Mr. D, but a lot more youthful and handsome, and definitely not as cranky. His hair was so jet black that it almost looked purple, and his eyes were glassy, giving him the appearance that he wasn't entirely sober, even if he really was. He was almost a head taller than Nico, but that didn't make him all that tall considering how short Nico was.
Nico walked closer to him and crossed his arms over his chest. Daniel looked up from the floor and gave him a small smile and a nod of his head, like he was saying Sup?
"What do you want? Really?" he asked with an exasperated sigh.
"I just want you to stay for the campfire, at least. And then you can leave. I think if you leave now that would be a big mistake, I dunno, I just have this feeling in my gut. Like, if you stay you'd be able to understand how important you were for the Camp. I'm sure you know that already, but I don't think you really believe that, you know? Just, could you humor me on this?" He asked, and his brown eyes looked sincere. As much that he wanted to believe that Daniel was messing with him, the way that he continued to bite his lip made Nico think that as awkward as he felt, Daniel felt just as awkward. He, however, was probably a lot better at hiding it than Nico. If he didn't want to seem too moody he would have sighed, because he knew that he was going to cave even though he didn't want to give this annoying kid the satisfaction.
"You have a feeling in your gut, huh?" he said after what felt like an incredibly long awkward silence, "You're sure it's not just the wine?" A smile almost peeked out on Nico's face, just almost.
Daniel stopped biting his lip and gave a smile, snorting at Nico's stupid jab, "Yeah, whatever Corpse Boy. So you coming or what? It starts in like five minutes."
Nico scowled a little at the nickname. He knew he deserved it for the joke he made, but he could never stand it when people mocked him like that. He could tell that Daniel had simply said it as a joke, just as Nico had, but that still didn't get the bad taste of it out of his mouth. He tried to shake it off, looking back to Daniel, who was trying his best to give him a pleading puppy dog look.
Nico rolled his eyes, "Sure, whatever," he said, "I'll go."
Daniel pumped his fists in the air, triumphant. Nico couldn't help but smile at his antics. He knew that just staying for the campfire wouldn't hurt, especially since he knew that nobody he was close with were going to be there. The only reason he wanted to make it a short trip in the first place was to avoid any awkward goodbyes, and since that wasn't a problem anymore, he decided to give it a shot just for this last time.
"Drew's not going to believe this," he said with a smile on his face, and beckoned Nico to follow him as he walked out of the cabin. Nico was somewhat surprise when he exited the cabin to see just how dark it had gotten. He hadn't thought that they had been in the cabin for that long, but as he looked around he saw the group over by the Big House disperse and walk towards the campfire, laughing and joking with each other. The two boys both followed the crowd, and Daniel looked around the various people, looking like he was searching for someone. It was only when an exceptionally pretty Asian girl came into view that he stopped looking and called out to her.
The girl walked briskly over to him, and as she came into closer view Nico noticed that she looked exasperated with Daniel. She walked up to him with a scowl on her face and her arms crossed across her chest. Nico couldn't help but smile at this, thinking that he and this girl must have similar opinions on Daniel, and wondered if he had looked just like that only a couple minutes before.
"That was probably the stupidest thing I've ever seen, I can't believe that you ditched me," she grumbled, her attention firmly on scolding him that she had not even noticed Nico yet, which was perfectly okay with him.
Daniel rolled his eyes at her jokingly, "You seemed like you were doing perfectly fine without me. Last time I checked you were still gossiping with the rest of your cabin, so I didn't think it would be a big deal," he said, giving her a playful push to which she responded with a half-hearted kick to his legs.
"Besides," Daniel added, "I had more pressing matters to attend to. I had to escort this handsome gentleman to his cabin and convince him to join us at the campfire," he gestured to Nico, who shrunk under the burning gaze of the girl, whom Nico gathered was Drew. From her attitude to the perfectly applied makeup and designer clothes, Nico could tell that she was definitely a daughter of Aphrodite. Nico had not had good luck with daughters of Aphrodite, Piper notwithstanding, as they were the usual ones to find him incredibly creepy and distasteful. He didn't get his hopes up that this girl would be any different.
Drew narrowed her eyes at him, studying him intently and without any embarrassment. She furrowed her eyebrows and tightened her arms across her chest almost defensively, like she was trying to keep her vital organs protected. She huffed and looked back towards Daniel, glaring.
"I can't believe you ditched me for Living Dead Boy over here. You're such an asswipe sometimes, it's so typical you would leave me alone to fool around with some creepy kid." By this time they had made it to the campfire, and Nico was just about to call it quits and leave because of this girl. However, Daniel gave Nico a pleading look and, for some reason, Nico heeded it. He did give an effort to glare as much as he could at Drew, even though it didn't seem to have any effect on her.
"Manners, Drew, you're being the asswipe here. And we weren't fooling around, I was just helping him out," said Daniel, to which Nico snorted. "Helping out" definitely wasn't the way he would have chosen to word it, Nico would have gone along the lines of "annoyed relentlessly."
"Now apologize to Nico," Daniel scolded, but Nico raised a hand.
"No need, I get it all the time," he said. As more people filed into the campfire pavilion, more people were starting to take notice of him, and he didn't want to cause a scene. Besides, he didn't care about any opinion that this girl had, apology or not.
Drew gave a half-shrug and sat down, as though she didn't care one way or the other how things went. Daniel and Nico followed, and Nico sulked as he watched the rest of the campers file in. He didn't see many familiar faces, which he took as a blessing. After a while, he sensed Daniel's gaze from the corner of his eye. He turned to him, and Daniel gave him a sympathetic smile.
"Sorry about her. She's a bitch, but my best friend. She's getting better," he added a little half-heartedly, "Well, either that or I'm getting used to it." He gave Nico another one of his big smiles that Nico did not reciprocate, but he did secretly appreciate it.
"Why are you her friend?" asked Nico, not caring that she was right next to Daniel and easily in hearing distance.
"She puts up with me, I put up with her. It's kind of a mutually beneficial thing. We're obviously not the most popular kids at the camp, if you couldn't tell. So we keep each other company and be assholes to each other and it basically all works out in the end, I guess. And she's not afraid of me, so that's a plus," he said.
Nico raised his eyebrows, "Are you trying to say that people are afraid of you?" he asked. His face was perfectly blank, but in his mind he was laughing. This kid was probably the least scary thing he had ever seen, and you could trust him on that. Nico knew scary, he practically lived it. He couldn't believe anybody would be able to be afraid of this dork.
Daniel's face turned stoic and he shrugged, "People at this camp are weird," was all he said. Nico nodded, he definitely agreed with that.
Around that time was when Chiron arrived, full centaur. He and the Apollo cabin led the sing along as people passed marshmallows around to roast. The fire was roaring and glowing bright vibrant colors from electric blue to fuschia. The fire always blazed in response to the energy and mood of the campers, and tonight it was going crazy. All of the campers were obviously still in high spirits from the festivities, and Nico idly watched as they all sang their songs and ate their marshmallows, occasionally smearing the sticky food into each others faces and laughing. Even Daniel and Drew, who had just been sulking, were singing along in loud, obnoxious voices. Nico even noticed Daniel sneaking a flask out of his inside jacket pocket and passing it down the line of campers with a mischievous glint in his eye. If he wasn't looking so closely he wouldn't have noticed it, and he was pretty impressed with his confidence and how he did it right under Chiron's nose. He was a son of Dionysus, though, so it made perfect sense.
The chaos soon started to die down as they ran out of sing-a-longs to sing. The conversation soon moved to the object of the weeks festivities, the Giant War. Stories were shared and rumors were spread, and more and more people became aware of his presence. People took turns staring at him for a couple of seconds, then whispering to their friends and gesticulating towards him. He heard his name murmured a couple of times as people became more and more restless of the second-hand tales of the Quest. They obviously were looking for a first hand account. He watched as people nudged each other as they dared each other to ask him questions, but nobody spoke up. He heard the phrase "Athena Parthenos" over and over, but still no one said anything to him, which he was perfectly fine with.
He looked around at all the campers in amusement. He found it somewhat funny that they were all so intimidated by him, it was actually a bit of an ego boost. He kept looking around until his eyes stopped on a wild mane of red hair. Rachel Elizabeth Dare stared intensely back at him, her mouth upturned slightly and eyes shining with amusement. She was right in the middle of the crowd of campers, with everybody in full view of her. Her expression gave him the chills, it was as though she knew something that everyone didn't - which was probably exactly the case.
Suddenly, as if a persuasive gust of wind blew through the crowd, the campers started to whisper to each other about the prophecy. The Great Prophecy of Seven, as they were beginning to call it, and what exactly Nico's role was in it. Chiron tracked the conversation as it passed from person to person with amused delight in his eye.
"That is a great question, guys," he responded to the whispers, "It's a good thing then, that we have an Oracle to consult with us these very things, yes?" He gave Rachel a knowing smile.
Rachel Elizabeth Dare rose in her seat with a sly smile on her face, "Well," she said, "I'm not one to give advice on what I predict, but I can certainly recite the last prophecy for use."
She stared into space, as though she would be reciting a poem to the willing audience. Just as she took her first deep breath to speak, she caught it and gasped, her eyes changing to a vibrant glowing green. The fire flickered and died down to a dull purple, shadowing each camper's face in an eerie atmosphere like something out of a nightmare. Green smoke billowed around everyone and swirled around Rachel Elizabeth Dare, illuminating her vibrant red hair into a surreal corona around her head. She opened her mouth and green fog escaped from it as well.
She spoke: "The sorceress instigator and Monster's Mother plan their revenge
On half-blood, mortal, and god alike, lest they be avenged
By the chosen three, demigods of great power and great need
To prove themselves and with reasons to be redeemed
Charmspeaker, Madness wielder, and Ghost King
Together to stop the forces of evil on All Hallows Eve
Lest the world succumb to chaos and darkness once more
Deep into Tartarus, the foes the Chosen ones must store."
Immediately after she concluded, the green mist faded and Rachel collapsed back into her chair. The fire roared back up as it once was before, and campers exchanged nervous glances to each other, trying to comprehend what had just happened.