Death and Madness|| Nico di Angelo

Fuck daggers, use a blue plastic hairbrush

There he was- Luke. Only it wasn't Luke. The Luke we had met before wasn't as evil looking. His scar seemed even uglier, his blonde hair looked as pale as mine... and worst of all, I suspected what had happened. 

"Run, little hero," he laughed. "Run!"

His voice was like a razor blade running over my skin. It was Luke's, but not Luke's. underneath his voice was another, more horrible sound—an ancient, cold sound like metal scraping against rock.

I saw Percy trying to run in our direction, but he looked like he was running in slow motion. My suspicions were confirmed. Kronos- the time lord was now in Luke's body. 

We all stood frozen as Kronos approached Percy. There was nothing we could do. No weapon in the world could stop him. No amount of celestial bronze.

He was ten feet away when Rachel yelled- "PERCY!"

Something flew past Percy, and a blue plastic hairbrush hit Kronos in the eye.

"Ow!" he yelled. For a moment it was only Luke's voice, full of surprise and pain. Percy's limbs were freed and he ran straight into me, falling on top of me. Nico helped Percy and me to our feet, he looked at us both for a second as if unsure whom he should glare at.

"Luke?" Annabeth called. "What—"

Percy grabbed her by the shirt and hauled her after him. I ran as fast as I've ever run, straight out of the fortress. We were almost back to the Labyrinth entrance when I heard the loudest bellow in the world—the voice of Kronos, coming back into control. "AFTER THEM!"

"No!" Nico yelled, skidding to a stop. His dark eyes looked nothing short of terrifying, but I felt heat rising to my cheeks for some reason. He clapped his hands together, and a jagged spire of rock the size of an eighteen-wheeler erupted from the ground right in front of the fortress. The tremor it caused was so powerful the front columns of the building came crashing down. I heard muffled screams from the telekhines inside. Dust billowed everywhere.

"Well that was intense"

We plunged into the Labyrinth and kept running, the howl of the Titan lord shaking the entire world behind us.

---

We ran until we were exhausted. Rachel steered us away from traps, but we had no destination in mind—only away from that dark mountain and the roar of Kronos.

We stopped in a tunnel of wet white rock, like part of a natural cave. I couldn't hear anything behind us, but I didn't feel any safer. I could still remember those unnatural golden eyes staring out of Luke's face. The Luke I had known was truly gone.

"I can't go any farther," Rachel gasped, hugging her chest.

Annabeth had been crying the entire time we'd been running. Now she collapsed and put her head between her knees. Her sobs echoed in the tunnel. Nico and I sat next to each other. He dropped his sword next to my daggers and took a shaky breath.

"That sucked," he said, which I thought summed things up pretty well.

"You saved our lives," Percy said as he sat down next to me.

Nico wiped the dust off his face. "Blame Vi for dragging me along. We all agreed we needed to help you or you'd mess things up."

"Nice that they trust me so much," Percy shined my flashlight across the cavern. Water dripped from the stalactites like a slow-motion rain. "Nico...you, uh, kind of gave yourself away."

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

"That wall of black stone? That was pretty impressive. If Kronos didn't know who you were before, he does now—a child of the Underworld."

Nico frowned. "Big deal."

Annabeth lifted her head. Her eyes were red from crying. "What...what was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"

Percy told her what he'd seen in the coffin, the way the last piece of Kronos's spirit had entered Luke's body when Ethan Nakamura pledged his service.

"We shouldn't have let that one eyed shit get away" I mumbled, causing Rachel to smile crookedly.

"No," Annabeth said. "That can't be true. Luke- He couldn't—"

"He gave himself over to Kronos," Percy said. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. But Luke is gone..."

"No!" she insisted. "You saw when Rachel hit him."

Percy nodded, looking at Rachel with respect. "You hit the Lord of the Titans in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush."

Rachel looked embarrassed. "It was the only thing I had."

"But you saw," Annabeth insisted. "When it hit him, just for a second, he was dazed. He came back to his senses."

"So maybe Kronos wasn't completely settled in the body, or whatever," Percy said. "It doesn't mean Luke was in control."

"You want him to be evil, is that it?" Annabeth yelled. "You didn't know him before, Percy. I did!"

"I knew him before too!" I yelled back. "This isn't him!"

My eyes began to prick. I hated that I couldn't face someone who was yelling at me without flinching or crying. Nico, spun me around so I was facing him instead. Which was even worse. 

But all that was going through my mind was Luke's face, the golden eyes and the occasional glass of wine hitting the wall thrown by mother dearest. 

I couldn't keep my tears at bay when I thought about that. But I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn't having a panic attack.. I was only crying. 

Nico pulled me into a hug. He didn't say anything, he didn't have to. 

"What is it with you?" Percy snapped. "Why do you keep defending him?"

"Whoa, you three," Rachel said. "Knock it off!"

Annabeth turned on her. "Stay out of it, mortal girl! If it wasn't for you..."

Whatever she was going to say, her voice broke. 

I just couldn't comprehend what I'd seen. Kronos was alive. He was armed. And the end of the world was probably close at hand.

"We have to keep moving," Nico whispered in my ears. 

I nodded and wiped my tears away. I was sure I looked uglier than the monsters we had seen, but I wasn't going to have a mental breakdown here.

"Nico's right" I said turning to everyone else. "He'll send monsters after us."

Nobody was in any shape to run, I offered Annabeth my hand, which she took with slight hesitation.

We started straggling back through the Labyrinth again.