A/n: Yep! It's a Dex chapter! No one's died yet! I was going to do this chapter later, but I'm better at writing Hazel and Dex chapters than from any other PoV, so I'm doing it now. I promise I'll have more chapters with Seaweed Brain and Fitz, but the majority will be Hazel and Dex. With that out of the way, enjoy this new chapter!
PoV: Dex
The first thing I could comprehend as I woke up was my terrible headache. I couldn't remember anything after I passed out, and even everything before that was kind of fuzzy. Groaning, I opened my eyes only to realize I was outside.
"Well, look who finally woke up!" A familiar voice exclaimed beside me. I whipped my head towards the sound, only to regret it when it caused my headache to spike and me to press my eyes shut.
When I opened them again, I saw a boy with black hair and clothes sitting in the shade of a tree. I recognized him, but couldn't remember his name. "Finally?" I asked, "What do you mean, 'finally'? "
" Uh, you've kinda been unconscious for about 4-5 days."
"What? Are you sure?"
" Fairly positive, since Hazel would ask about you every day. I'm Nico. "
"Dex," I replied , "And, um, what exactly happened?"
" I was hoping you might know. One second Hazel's dragging me into the Posiden cabin, the next you and Fitz have collapsed and Percy shows up. "
"Wait, where is Fitz? Is he okay?"
Nico sighed, "Honestly, I don't know. "
"What do you mean 'you don't know '?! You have to know!"
" I mean that we were attacked by your weird 'Neverseen' and Fitz told me to keep you safe and now we're here. "
"Why would Fitz, of all people, want to keep me safe?" I asked, mostly to myself.
"Well, he said something about a Sophie Foster and how she would get mad at him if you were hurt and was the only person that could wake you up. Obviously he was wrong, but still. "
I sighed as I thought about Sophie. Her apology from all those nights before was still fresh in my mind, and it reminded me of what had happened before I blacked out, when her voice was repeating her name. My brain tried to put the pieces together, like when I was making a gadget, but it was like when I was working on the caches. They just wouldn't click.
"So... How'd we get here?" I asked slowly, understanding Nico probably wasn't someone who liked to be asked a lot of questions.
"Shadow travel." He stated plainly, probably expecting me to at least understand part of what he was saying, which I didn't. "Your elves that control shadows can do that, right?"
" First of all, they're called Shades, and secondly, we might call some of our abilities different things than you do. "
"It's using shadows to go to different places. I feel like the title made that clear."
" Similar to teleportation? " I asked, thinking about Sophie again.
"I guess. So, your Shades can do that?"
"Sadly, no. Only Sophie can teleport."
There was an awkward silence as the conversation came to a halt. Neither of us really knew what to say. We were both worried about different people, in different places, for different reasons, and we couldn't help any of them.
"Wait," I said as I remembered something, "Did you happen to see a girl with ice blue eyes and blonde hair?"
"Right. Because I'm definitely paying attention to my enemies eye color while I'm fighting."
"Nico, I'm serious."
Nico sighed, "Well, I did see someone with what may have been ice blue eyes. They were all wearing hoods, so I couldn't see their hair, but I wasn't fighting that person, so that's all I can tell you."
His vague answer was more than enough for me. I pulled my legs up to my chest and rested my forehead against them. All the pieces started clicking together; Sophie's voice, the Neverseen attack, everything. Taking deep breaths to calm myself down, I felt a few unwanted tears slip down my face.
"Woah, are you okay?" Nico asked, actual consideration in his words.
"It's my fault," I whispered as the puzzle formed together perfectly in a picture I didn't want to see, "It's all my fault."
" What do you mean? You've been unconscious for almost a week! How could you have-"
"Before that. " I interrupted, "It had to be Gisela."
" Who? "
"Lady Gisela. She's Keefe's mother, and she's a Polyglot, so she can speak in any language and mimic people's voices. She had to be the one talking to me, which means she needed Gethen to reach me, since she's not a telepath."
" How'd she knock you and Fitz out then? "
"I'm still trying to figure that out, but I know that they were talking to me until they knew they had reached me and could pinpoint exactly where we were. Ugh, I feel like an idiot! "
"Look, I'm not very good at pep talks, so this will probably sound terrible, but whatever these Neverseen people are doing, it's not your fault. And, they won't achieve their goal, because we're going to stop them."
I raised my head slightly, "Hold on, we can't take on the Neverseen by ourselves! Even when we had Sophie, along with, like, 7 other people and all our bodyguards, we couldn't take them on! "
"True, but you're all elves. Not to be rude, but you're kind of limited."
" And demigods aren't? "
"Not as limited. Also, if we can use the Neverseen against themselves, it would help."
" An I supposed to understand what that means? "
Nico pulled a Greek coin - a drachma, if my memory serves me right - and stood up, "you've got a way to talk to your elf friends, right?" I nodded, and stood up as well as he started walking away towards a small stream, " Good. Cause we may need to use it. "
"Why? What are you doing?" I asked as I followed him.
Nico didn't reply. Instead, he stopped, dropped the coin in the water, and mumbled something under his breath. I could only catch the word "Annabeth" before her image appeared on the surface. Another, very familiar face was also there.
"Dex! " Sophie exclaimed, her smile the biggest I'd ever seen.
"Sophie! You're okay!" I replied as I grinned.
" Well, as good as I could be! I was so worried! Where's Fitz? "
My smile fell, and I glanced at Nico. Annabeth must've noticed, because she spoke up, "Well, we obviously need to talk." She turned and looked at Sophie, who just nodded.
Suddenly, her voice filled my mind, which caused me to wince. # Meet us- hold on, Dex, are you okay?# I nodded and let her keep talking #Um... Okay... Anyways, meet us at the old Neverseen base. We've been hiding out there.#
"See you there, Soph. " I replied out loud, rewarding myself a strange look from Nico. Annabeth nodded, and their faces disappeared.
I sighed and turned to face Nico. "Okay, have you ever tried Shadow traveling to a place you don't know?"
" Yeah, but I don't know how good I'll be at traveling to wherever you elves have been hiding these past few thousand years. "
"Alright. I guess we're doing this the elven way. " I grabbed my home crystal from around my neck, "We'll get a pathfinder from my house, and then we'll meet up with Sophie and Annabeth. "
"Pathfinder?"
" It might make more sense after we get there. " I paused for a moment before extending my hand for him to take, "Come on."
Nico hesitated even longer than I did before he grabbed my hand. "Um, what are we doing?" he asked as I held the crystal to the light.
"We're going to the Lost Cities. " I replied, pulling him into the beam with me.
Yay! I hope you liked this chapter! I'm kinda mad at myself because I can't remember how Nico was written, and just remember him how I imagine him being! Please, don't judge!
Also, I will try to update every other day. See you next time!