CHAPTER SUMMARY
Cho debates what to do about her dream. Persephone's quest begins.
BEGINNING NOTES
Chapter Rating: General Audiences
Content Warning: Cursing, Rape/Sexual Harassment (mentioned only), Mild Racism
Word Count: 3979
Roszí is pronounced ROW-shee.
This chapter forward, I use a lot of mythology (Greek, Roman, and Wizarding) and historical stuff (not in the boring kind) so, when applicable, I'll have sources in the end notes.
And all the characters are owned by JK Rowling, or Rick Riordan.
____________________CHO____________________
Cho didn't want to look at Wizarding Weekly. She knew Papa had it downstairs, but she had a sneaking suspicion that her dream was more than a dream. The implications of that were such that she didn't want to press further, she didn't want to know. This didn't concern her... but... didn't it? What if the article was about You-Know-Who? Cedric died at his hand, so shouldn't she get all the information possible? And Harry, his life was You-Know-Who. Didn't she owe it to her loved ones to get the story?
That's right Cho, work yourself up some more.
She needed a distraction. She glanced at the clock: it was only half-past eight. Perfect.
She got out of bed and walked down the hall, where Mama was reading Sora to sleep. She leaned against the doorframe, watching the two of them with a smile on her face. Sora looked so peaceful, her mother looked so domestic. Stability, that's what Cho needed, and the only place she got it was here. Not for the first time, she wished she could just drop out of Hogwarts and stay home forever. The only love she had left was within these walls, and she spent most of the year away from it. Letters could only do so much, and she couldn't use her cell phone at Hogwarts (Mama was a muggle so she needed one to contact extended family).
"Choo-choo!" Sora cried.
Mama sighed in teasing disappointment. "An hour of reading, wasted."
Cho laughed. Unfortunately, it was true. Sora was a hyperactive little girl and now she was too excited to lay down in her bed. "Sorry, Mama," Cho apologized. "Why don't I calm her down?"
"That would be lovely. Make sure she's asleep--"
"By nine, I know. C'mon Sora, why don't we take out Percy?"
Sora clapped in delight. Cho lifted her little sister off the bed and squatted on the floor. She took out a miniature Thomas the Tank Engine set, courtesy of her grandparents. "How do you want the tracks today?"
"Straight! Straight! And the bridge!"
Cho put the tracks in a straight line, and put the green train--Percy--on top. "Here we go, Sora! Choo! Choo!" As she made the train noises, she flipped Percy from off to on, and the little figure chugged down the track and into Sora's waiting arms. She squealed with delight as it tried, and failed, to ride up her fingers. The still-running wheels tickled Sora's hand, making her giggle. It was all well and good until her finger got caught in one of the wheels. Sora jerked her hand away and burst into red-faced tears.
Cho pulled Percy off the floor and shut him off. "It's okay," she cooed to her sister. "Where does it hurt?" Sora pointed to her finger with a whimper. "All right, here," Cho said, pulling a Band-Aid from a box on the dresser. She wrapped it around Sora's finger and kissed the top for good measure.
"All better?"
"All better."
The ordeal tired Sora out considerably. Cho lifted her into her bed and tucked her in with another kiss on the forehead. "Goodnight, Sora," she whispered, and flicked the light off.
Cho's phone buzzed as soon as she lied back down on her own bed. Marietta's name lit the screen. She hesitated to answer the phone. They hadn't spoken in weeks.
Get over yourself. Maybe she wants to apologize.
She didn't forgive her... not completely, anyway. She knew why her friend did what she did--Marietta was her best friend, not her babysitter, and had every right to leave if Cho was making her miserable--but that didn't mean Cho had to like it. Marietta had hurt her when she was already vulnerable enough.
She answered the call. "What do you want." It came out cold--a statement, not a question.
"Please Cho, I'm sorry. I want to be friends again. I'm sorry I left you, but you need to understand, I couldn't take the crying anymore. But, Cho, I swear I'm sorry about Cedric and Harry. No, that's no excuse. You're my best friend. I should be there for you, I shouldn't make you feel worse. I'm sorry I said you needed to grow up, I never blamed you, I just needed you to help yourself." A short pause. "I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I'm terrible at this."
"It's okay. You are a brat sometimes."
"It's o... so you forgive me, then?"
"Yeah, I guess I do. I get it. I'm still pissed, but I want my best friend back."
"I know, me too. I don't deserve this. I can make it up to you. Do you still want to work in the Ministry? The Department of International Magical Cooperation wants an intern, my Mum's in charge, and she said it's yours if you want it. We'd work together all summer, maybe get jobs too when we graduate!"
This was her chance to uncover the truth about her dream.
It was just a dream!
"We could even go and visit, Marietta continued, "but not until after Christmas. Some idiots saw that Wizarding Weekly article and now they're staging some protest, day after tomorrow. I don't want to cross a picket line, you know how those things are in the muggle world."
Cho's heart sank. What was in that article? All she had to do was go downstairs, take the newspaper out of the rack, and read it. Why must her legs always feel like lead? It shouldn't be so constantly hard to pull the sheets away and step onto the floor!
"Sure, Marietta. Sounds amazing. I'll call you tomorrow, I'm going to get some rest. Goodnight."
____________________THALIA____________________
Thalia left the Winter Solstice camp meeting without a word. Roszí and Ianthe, her right and left hands, followed close behind. She was back to her usual self after the whole chrysanthemum incident, but she was still pissed about it. The last thing a Hunter of Artemis wants is dulled senses, and she felt like she'd been hit over the head with Zeus's lightning bolt. That stupid goddess had forced her to do her dirty work for the second time, and a happy camper Thalia was not.
No wonder Nico hates the demigod world. If Persephone forces me into one more quest, I swear I'll electrocute her until she looks like a cartoon character post-dynamite.
Though she'd never admit it, Thalia was as angry at Lady Artemis as with Persephone. Well, not as mad, but pretty close. Her blessing was as good as a seal of approval, despite being sent away on a different god's word to do another god's bidding. The Hunters weren't pawns in divine plans, they were guardians of the immortal world, the first line of defense to ensure monsters didn't leave chaos in their wake. They weren't a taxi service. Her Lady should know that.
She knew her sisters would be more angry about having to travel with Nico than she was. She didn't particularly like the kid all that much, but she didn't hate him either. Now that she spent so much time in the company of women, many quintessential boy behaviors irked her, but she didn't distrust or hate them on basic principle like many of her sisters did. Of course, Thalia didn't have their histories.
Roszí was a child servant of the Holy Roman Empire's royal family until Emperor Leopold I thought he could, um, have her because she was Romani. Many men in the court abused her. One day, on one of her many attempts to run away, she stumbled on the Hunters during target practice. After some begging, Lady Artemis took pity on her. At fourteen, she was one of the oldest hunters but proved to be a master of disguise, stealth, and tracking. When Phoebe died, she became Thalia's right-hand woman and didn't disappoint.
Ianthe was newer; she joined a few months before the Battle of Manhattan. She was the child of Apollo and had the medical skills to prove it. Her mom died on a quest when she was a baby, and she ended up in the foster care system. She was bullied and mocked relentlessly for being an orphan, and her teachers did nothing to stop it. Five high school boys in particular made her life a living hell all throughout elementary school. One day, when she was only nine years old, a Cerastes (abnormally flexible serpents with horns on their heads) attacked during recess. Ianthe was the only one able to see through the Mist and saved her school by throwing rocks at the monster until the Hunters arrived. After such a ridiculous act of bravery, Lady Artemis offered her the chance to join on the spot. She proved herself during the Battle of Manhattan as one of the best healers Thalia had ever seen.
A lot of the Hunters had pasts like those. It took a lot for most girls to give up their homes and families for all eternity and forswear boys. Now they'd have Nico di Angelo and Alabaster C. Torrington following along for an entire day. She didn't know what to say to her sisters when the three of them got back to Cabin Eight.
They arrived outside the cabin door. Thalia turned to Roszí and Ianthe. "Let me do the talking, okay? We're all frustrated with the situation, and I don't want to make things harder than they have to be."
"Like you're the one with the coolest head," Ianthe said.
"No, I'm the First Lieutenant, which means I know what to do."
Both of her sisters were too distracted to argue much. They were all worn down from such a long journey to New York, and Thalia knew coming to terms with male companions sapped most of their energy.
"Okay, girls, listen up!" Thalia yelled once they walked into the cabin. All her sisters stopped what they were doing and stood at attention. "We just got back from the solstice meeting, and Lady Artemis contacted me earlier. We have a new job to do on our way back to the Arctic!" A few of the younger girls cheered for a new adventure. "We're traveling to Yellowstone--a bit north of Yellowstone, actually--to meet with Ceres, Roman goddess of agriculture. Persephone, the Greek goddess of springtime and queen of the Underworld, needs a message delivered to her mother right away. We'll be escorting..." she paused for a second, waiting for the right words to come to her. They didn't. "Two campers, Nico di Angelo and Ala--"
Already, the entire cabin was in an uproar.
"A boy?! No way!"
"Boys shall slow our journey!"
"Lady Artemis will be furious another goddess commanded us!"
"Quiet!" Thalia yelled. "Lady Artemis has already blessed our journey with speed. We will escort two boys--Nico di Angelo and Alabaster C. Torrington--to Ceres' palace, and then we'll be free to continue our Hunt--Lady Artemis promised twenty-four hours at the most, so it's only a slight detour. We leave as soon as our companions are ready, so break camp!"
The girls dragged their feet when they gathered their things. This was not going to be an easy trip.
____________________PERCY____________________
As soon as the meeting ended, Percy ran back to his cabin to Iris Message his mom and Paul and told them everything.
"Can you put Nico on?" Mom asked for the millionth time.
"He'll I.M. when he's ready," Paul said, but there was worry in his voice too.
"He can't take ambrosia or nectar anymore. There's no reason to send him on a quest where he might get hurt."
Mom got used to Percy putting himself in danger. He knew that she worried like crazy, but there was something about sending a mortal boy on a demigod task that didn't sit right with any of them. It took everything Percy had not to run to Chiron and demand he go in Nico's place. He would've done it the moment they announced the quest if Annabeth hadn't stopped him.
"Could you go with him, Percy?" Paul asked.
"I tried," Percy said. "Nico didn't want anyone but Alabaster to. He doesn't want the Hunters, either, but they were kinda forced on him."
"Of course he doesn't want to travel with the Hunters," Mom said. The elephant in the room hung in the air. Percy didn't want to think about Bianca.
"I'll catch him before he leaves," Percy told his parents. "I'll drop by in a few days, once Nico gets back." Mom closed her eyes like she was trying to keep herself from crying. Percy hated seeing her like this, going crazy with worry. He knew she was like this over him many times, but he'd never seen it before, and the sight hit him in the gut. "I love you," Percy said. His mom and Paul replied with a "you too," and Percy waved out the image.
Now, it was off to the Hades cabin. Percy worried Nico had already left. He had a habit of that, leaving without saying goodbye if he knew one someone wouldn't like it. For a while, no one knew when (or that) Alabaster was showing up. It took a hellhound attack right outside their apartment for anyone to realize that his visits were a regular thing. It was Alabaster's idea to ask if hellhounds still listened to Nico. It was Nico's idea to try to summon one. It was Percy's idea to get Mrs. O'Leary to run it down before it destroyed the entire block. It was Mom's idea to ground Nico for a month.
Percy should know not to walk into a one-camper cabin without knocking from Jason and Piper the other day. Why? Because Nico forgot to shadow-shield-glue the door closed and Will decided to pop by before Percy to "say goodbye."
At least they have all their clothes on.
"Guys!" Percy exclaimed. Nico and Will jumped apart. Will gave a little, awkward laugh, said " 'Bye, Neeks," and ran out.
"Coward!" Nico shouted after him, but Will was running so fast that Percy wasn't positive he heard. He rubbed the back of his neck, face flushed and cheeks hot. Nico kept his eyes on the floor.
"Soooo..." Percy said. "Never acknowledge this again?"
"Yeah," Nico agreed.
Both boys stood there awkwardly.
"I should go pack--"
"Yeah, yeah, you... you do that."
And Percy ran out.
An hour later, he watched his brother come over the hill with his backpack as an overnight questing bag. Or not-questing bag. Whichever.
"Hey, congratulations on the engagement." Percy turned. Thalia stood behind him. "Just wanted to say 'bye before I head up north. We never really got to talk since I got back."
"Yeah," Percy said. "And thanks."
His mind was on Nico, trudging up that hill with a backpack too full to carry. The sunset gave everything a dark, blood-red tint. He was worried. He was really worried. Nico, sans most demigod powers, would walk into the domain of the goddess who hated his ex-father the most out of all the Olympians to ask her for a favor she would never grant.
"I'll take care of him for you," Thalia assured him. "He'll be safe with us." She nudged her head towards the other Hunters. "They may not like boys much, but they wouldn't leave him out to rot. Even if they do, I won't."
"I thought you didn't like him either."
Thalia shook her head. "I don't know him well enough. But I do know this: to him, the Hunters are the reason his sister died. No kid should've gone through what he did. I won't let that stand. I hated us too, not too long ago. I respected Bianca. She loved him so much that she died trying to give him a gift. If anyone tries to hurt him, they'll do it over my dead body. And I'm immortal."
"Thank you," Percy said, though it didn't do all that much to ease his worries. Emotions don't listen to logic.
"I have to go," Thalia said. She waved goodbye to him and the Hunters, Nico, and Alabaster standing atop Half-Blood Hill. The Golden Fleece glittered in the dimming sunset, framing Chiron's human half as he spoke to the group. He gave them some Ziploc bags with supplies, then handed them off to Argus.
Percy didn't notice Annabeth until she snaked her hand into his.
"He'll be ok."
"They said that about Bianca too."
____________________NICO____________________
Argus's van was Apollo's sun chariot all over again.
Van wasn't the right word. With thirty-something Hunters of Artemis, Argus chartered a bus. Or Chiron did, anyway. It would be hard for Argus to talk on the phone because he had an eye where his tongue was. He had eyes over every centimeter of his body. It freaked Nico out.
So, there he sat, alone with Al in the front of the bus, trying not to look at Argus, with all the Hunters squished in the back four rows, trying to ignore their existence.
Al found it all funny. Funny.
"What, do they think they'll catch cooties?"
"Yes." Nico was short with him, but he didn't care.
"Well, they should grow up."
"Yeah."
Al rolled his eyes at Nico's behavior. "You're acting like a little kid too."
Nico didn't respond. He put his earbuds in his ears and made a point of turning the volume all the way up and pressing play.
"Have it your way," Al said. They didn't talk after that.
After forty-five minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic in a bus the temperature of a refrigerator, tensions were high. Nico moved closer to the middle of the bus to get away from Al. He felt too claustrophobic, or maybe that was his ADHD kicking in. He moved to a different seat. He sunk down so he was sitting between the seat and the back of the next, where his feet went, like a little cave. That didn't do anything either. He started pacing up and down the aisle. He played a game called "let's see how close I can get to the Hunters before they have to admit that I exist."
He heard Dr. Solberg's voice in his head, saying something like 'being antagonistic doesn't help anything,' but Dr. Solberg wasn't there. Nico wasn't cutting. He didn't have any intrusive thoughts or mood swings. It was none of her business.
Ianthe the Hunter bent down to pick some lint off of her pants the same moment Nico edged a bit closer to her and the other girls. When she looked up, she got a full view of Nico only a few feet from her. She recoiled on instinct just long enough for Nico to see. He turned and walked towards the front of the bus with a proud smile on his lips.
Ten points to Slytherin.
Before he could do a 180° and try to scare Ianthe again, Argus stopped the bus at another bus station. Al, completely done with him, threw Nico's backpack at his chest and shoulder-checked on the stairs down to the sidewalk.
Manhattan. Nico was back in action. Despite living in a quiet villa, quiet camp, or quiet Underworld/Labyrinth-farm most of his life, the lights and sounds of the city invigorated him. He was a city boy now with the New York apartment to prove it.
Give the Hunters the woods. This is my city.
Without a word, Argus turned right to the next block and disappeared in the maze of gridlocked, honking-despite-the-fact-that-it's-illegal cars.
"Where to?" Al asked the Hunters cheerfully. They didn't say a word back.
The bus arrived. It wasn't empty since New York City buses never are, but only a handful of old men and women sat in the handicapped seats in the front of the bus. They all had to squish past the walkers in the aisle.
With a whisper from Thalia, Al cast a spell over the driver and old people, and the bus started rolling. Thalia pulled a map from her knapsack and told them the plan. "We have to travel northwest. We'll take this bus over the George Washington Bridge, then travel west until we hit Cheyenne, Wyoming. Then we'll go northwest, cutting straight through Wyoming, until we get to Yellowstone. Cut north through the park until we hit Chouteau county. That's where Ceres' palace is: New Arcadia."
"Persephone said Southern Montana," Roszí reminded them. "Chouteau is not south."
"Did you memorize a map of Montana?" Nico muttered.
Roszí snapped her head towards him and tried to stare him down, to pounce like she was a tiger and he some tiny bird. "I pay attention, boy."
"Persephone obviously got her Montana geography wrong," Al said, trying to suppress a smile.
How can you find this funny?!
Al borrowed the map from Thalia. "Chouteau is the number one wheat producer in Montana. And it's directly north of Yellowstone, practically a straight line. Thalia's right, that has to be where Persephone meant."
"How do you know it's the number one wheat producer in Montana?" Thalia asked, perplexed. "Lady Artemis just told me that's where to go."
"I looked it up on Nico's iPod while he was pacing like a maniac," Al said. "There's a government website dedicated to farming stats by state. I wanted to see if we could pinpoint exactly where we were going."
Oh, look, a boy did something smart. Do the Hunters acknowledge it? Nope.
"Damn, I can't see the stars," Thalia muttered to herself. She had a compass between her legs, hidden from onlookers by the crowd of young girls. She glanced at the speedometer of the bus with squinty eyes and up again at the dark sky. She started mouthing to herself, walking through some complicated math problems in her head.
Al tried to hand the map back to the Hunters, but none of them took it. Most of them wanted to burn that map like it was Kronos's sarcophagus.
"We're going forty miles an hour," Al told Thalia. "That's what you're looking at, right? The speedometer?"
"Yeah," Thalia said, only half listening, distracted with her math. Nico saw one of the Hunters give a horrified glance to another, and that was it. He couldn't take it anymore.
"I don't want to sound like a greeting card, but we're in this together," Nico said in a harsh whisper to all the Hunters. "Now would you all please grow up and stop thinking of yourselves and do something other than your little girls' club?"
Nico didn't remember what happened next. He blinked, and suddenly he was seconds away from a fistfight with Ianthe, fuming with anger he hadn't felt since he laid eyes on Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets. "If you push me, I'll show you how a little girl fights!" Ianthe hissed.
"Break it up!" Thalia whispered a little too loudly. "Now! Ianthe, you're a Hunter; have some self-control, or I swear to the gods--"
Thalia never finished that sentence. Al had only time to say "Uh, guys..." before one of the old men in the front of the bus stood, hunched like the average old man with a walker, except he wasn't using his walker anymore. His four other friends stood too. What Nico had assumed were beards and hair turned out to be feathers, a beak nose just a beak, and glassy eyes the unblinking eyes of a rooster. Their winter coats transformed into flaps of skin between their clawed hands to form a dragon-like wing and clawed humps and feathers forming a mane down their backs.
They all walked towards the demigods on the toes of their clawed feet, lizard tail swishing back and forth, turning the seats to nothing but fluff.
"A cockatrice!" Al warned. "It's from my mother's la--"
The old man hissed, sticking out his reptilian tongue.
He pounced.
END NOTES
How many Percy's can I fit into one story? Time shall tell.
The "What I do for your people:" https://www.nass.usda.gov/Quick_Stats/Ag_Overview/stateOverview.php?state=MONTANA
Actual Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerastes
http://www.tourmycountry.com/austria/monarchy.htm
This week's beta commentary:
STORY: He had eyes over every centimeter of his body
MELODY: Because he's Italian. #metricsystem
SARA: #engineershatethistwopartysystem
#politicsormeasurements
#both
#bothisgood
#hashtag
SARA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter #STOPTHEMADNESS
Credits:
Melody Rose - Author (melody0rose.tumblr.com)
Sara - Beta Reader (http://icomparemyselftoyou.tumblr.com)
Please comment so I know what you think! See you next time!