Memories

Dejected

Hazel's POV:
Poor Nico my brother we had just watched his memory about him and Cupid when he was outed to Jason.

The next memory began Nico knelt and picked it up. He regarded Jason, as if waiting for an attack. "If the others found out—"

"If the others found out," Jason said, "you'd have that many more people to back you up, and to unleash the fury of the gods on anybody who gives you trouble."

Nico scowled. Jason still felt the resentment and anger rippling off him.

"But it's your call," Jason added. "Your decision to share or not. I can only tell you—"

"I don't feel that way anymore," Nico muttered. "I mean...I gave up on Percy. I was young and impressionable, and I—I don't..."

His voice cracked, and Jason could tell the guy was about to get teary-eyed. Whether Nico had really given up on Percy or not, Jason couldn't imagine what it had been like for Nico all those years, keeping a secret that would've been unthinkable to share in the 1940s, denying who he was, feeling completely alone—even more isolated than other demigods.

"Nico," he said gently, "I've seen a lot of brave things. But what you just did? That was maybe the bravest."

Nico looked up uncertainly. "We should get back to the ship."

"Yeah. I can fly us—"

"No," Nico announced. "This time we're shadow-traveling. I've had enough of the winds for a while."

Nico looked like he would rather be eaten alive then have us watching this Percy just looked stunned watching it and Jason had already been there to experience it.

Nico brushed some ice from his hair. He frowned at the scepter of Diocletian. "I should put this thing away. If it's really causing the weather, maybe taking it below deck will help..."

"Sure," Jason said.

Nico glanced at Piper and Leo, as if worried what they might say when he was gone. Piper felt his defenses going up, like he was curling into a psychological ball, the way he'd gone into a death trance in that bronze jar.

The next memory was kept short they all had arrived at the house of hades and we're battling there way in by the end of the memory they had recused Percy and Annabeth and Rayna had arrived.

"It makes sense," Nico said.

Percy flinched. It almost sounded like Nico had read his mind and was agreeing that Athena should step on him.

The son of Hades sat at the other end of the circle, eating nothing but half a pomegranate, the fruit of the Underworld. Percy wondered if that was Nico's idea of a joke.

"The statue is a powerful symbol," Nico said. "A Roman returning it to the Greeks...that could heal the historic rift, maybe even heal the gods of their split personalities."

Coach Hedge swallowed his strawberry along with half the screwdriver. "Now, hold on. I like peace as much as the next satyr—"

"You hate peace," Leo said.

"The point is, Valdez, we're only—what, a few days from Athens? We got an army of giants waiting for us there. We went to all the trouble of saving this statue—"

"I went to most of the trouble," Annabeth reminded him.

"—because that prophecy called it the giants' bane," the coach continued. "So why aren't we taking it to Athens with us? It's obviously our secret weapon." He eyed the Athena Parthenos. "It looks like a ballistic missile to me. Maybe if Valdez strapped some engines to it—"