Changing the Future

Chapter 67

So, my friends peer pressured me into feeding you guys...

I've had this chapter in the works for a few months and now it's finally finished, yay!

There is a brief mention of self-harm in this chapter (literally one sentence), but I just wanted to make y'all aware of it. Happy reading!

(Plz don't kill me)

0o0o

For the next two weeks, I juggled helping Leo finish the Argo II alongside the rest of the Hephaestus kids during the day and sealing breaches into and out of the Underworld during the night, having to compensate for both Thanatos's and Nico's incapacitation.

With the little free time that I did have, which usually consisted of bathroom and snack breaks, I finally scrounged up a plan on how to get out of Tartarus without the use of my powers. It was tenuous at best and relied on a few things that were out of my control, but honestly, I knew that this was my best bet and that I had no other options left. My friends were counting on me; I couldn't let them down.

One day, towards the beginning of June, Leo told me to go check on Jason and Piper, promising that he and his siblings had the finishing of the Argo II taken care of. Knowing that he wouldn't send me away unless something was seriously wrong, I sought out the couple, finding them sitting on one of the hills that overlooked the strawberry fields.

"I don't understand," Piper was saying, angrily ripping out large clumps of grass. "The stupid knife isn't showing me anything useful. Why would it show me a girl in armor, sitting at her desk?"

Jason visibly flinched. "By any chance," he began, "was this girl wearing a purple cape and had her hair in one long braid?"

Piper whirled around to stare at Jason, her mouth slightly open in shock. "How'd you know what she looked like? I didn't tell you, did I?"

"That's Reyna," Jason explained. "She was my fellow praetor at Camp Jupiter. Between the two of us, we ran the Twelfth Legion."

"Oh." Piper didn't sound too thrilled about that. "But the camp can be run by one person, right?"

"It can, but it shouldn't." Jason raked a hand through his close cropped hair, mussing it up a bit. "Imagine trying to be in control of two hundred kids from nine-years-old to twenty-something as well as countless magical animals and Roman spirits. Even with two praetors there, it's not an easy job. Gods only know how Reyna's managing to keep afloat at the moment."

"With a little help from friends," I interjected, chuckling a bit as I watched both Jason and Piper jump.

"Leo's right," Piper exclaimed. "We need to put some bells on you."

I shrugged. "Eventually you'll get used to me popping up everywhere. But to answer your question, Jason, I've been helping Reyna with some of her more complicated praetor duties, and she also has help from two of her friends in the fifth cohort."

Jason smiled at the mention of his own cohort, no doubt remembering the good times that he had with his friends.

"Now is there any reason in particular Leo asked me to find you two, or...?"

Piper turned beet red, staring at her lap and ripping out another chunk of grass. After abusing the grass a few more times, she hesitantly unsheathed Katoptris, setting the blade flat on the ground. The sunlight shone of the bronze blade, but instead of reflecting the light, the blade took the light and shimmered, a picture etching itself onto the bronze.

I looked over Piper's shoulder, barely stifling a gasp as I stared into her knife.

There was Nico, battered, bloodied, and bruised, staggering through the acrid landscape of Tartarus, his grip relentless around his sword, one hand clutching what appeared to be a deep wound by his hip. His eyes were wide with fear, his head on a constant swivel as he kept glancing over his shoulder, careful to cling to the shadows as he followed the Phlegethon.