Vanished

Chapter Eleven - Nico - To Hope or Be Hopeless

Nico crawled out of the room where every one was recently thrown back against the wall a shook around the room as if their lives meant absolutely nothing to whoever what causing the sink to shake. Piper seemed the only girl of the crew that had taken a liking to Liberty and offered to help her. Jason swept Calypso up onto the mast and Frank took Percy and Leo onto the mast also in the form of a giant eagle even against their protests. Nico and Annabeth made their way up the steps. He could've easily shadow traveled but that would be a wast of energy. Annabeth sniffled and held back tears as she unsheathed her dagger. Whoever was causing this was about tone obliterated by an angry Annabeth.

Nico took out his Stygian Iron sword as he made his way up to the ship. A flock of angry harpies flanked both sides of the boat like an angry swarm of wasps...or ugly bird ladies. They are nothing like Ella.

The harpies were fat and feathers bluer than the sky on a cloudless day. Don't get him started on their faces. Old, wrinkly, fat, angry bird ladies attacking the ship. Probably for fun. Piper was taking them down one by one with her charm speak meanwhile Jason struck them down with volts of lightning. Percy stabbed half heartedly with Riptide at one who just squawked at him in an annoyed tone. He was definitely not in a good mood. Frank turned into a scaly and slick winged dragon and began picking up the harpies throwing them up into the air scorching them with his fire breath and dropping them into the sky, then went onto the next one.

Leo and Annabeth seemed to be having a field day. Leo laughed and made snide remarks as he scorched the harpies out of the sky and sent the gold dust plummeting towards the earth and Annabeth stabbed and stabbed and stabbed and stabbed. Calypso yelled insults at the harpies to lower their self-esteem, if monsters gave self-esteem.

"Why so many pigeons?!" Liberty wailed at cowered behind a wooden pole. She couldn't see through the mist. All she was seeing was the demigods attacking pigeons.

A harpy kicked furiously to the side of the boat, knocking Nico to the edge. He held onto the railing to regain his balance and went in for the kill. He sliced right through the harpy's neck as if it were made of jello and watched it dissolve into dust and blow away in the wind.

One down, a dozen to go. Nico thought.

"Help me!" Calypso screamed. One was pulling her, clinging to her arm with its sharp talons. Calypso held onto the rail for dear life. Her blood dripped from the scratches, staining the lily white dress she wore. If she let go, who knows what the harpy would do. Drop her, take her somewhere, or worse, kill her in cold-blood.

"Calypso!" Leo shouted and stopped burning a screeching harpy. He kicked it on the edge and put it out of its misery.

"Unhand me!" She screamed.

Jason and Frank (in eagle form) flew towards her and the harpy, but they didn't get to her in time. Calypso's hands began slipping and she shouted curses and she was pulled away. Nico stared in shock, gaping at the sight of Calypso being dragged, or flown, away by a harpy and out of sight. The other harpies followed after as if the only reason they came was to take Calypso...was it?

"No!" Leo shouted furiously. He turned to Jason and Frank. "Why didn't you go after her?!" He yelled. Every one was silent, Leo yelled and yelled. He was so angry. Jason and Frank landed onto the mast and tried to explain there was no way to get to her without hurting her. The harpies had surrounded her.

"Leo, we'll find her." Nico offered his condolences although it probably didn't matter.

"Yeah, just like we'll find Reyna and Hazel." he said bitterly. "This quest is hopeless." He said and made his way to him room.

"Holy crap, the pigeons just kidnapped McShizzle's girlfriend..." Liberty whispered to herself although loud enough for the others to hear.

Piper's lip quivered and she began crying into Jason's chest. Nico had no shoulder to cry. Everyone was busy with their own business. Frank is focused on finding Hazel, Percy and Annabeth are barely even looking at each other, Piper was being comforted by Jason. Leo was angry that his girlfriend was just kidnapped. And he barely knew the mortal, Liberty.

Nico hated to admit it, but he missed his boyfriend. He just wanted to be in Will's warm embrace, listening to heartbeat. Just there in silence. Nico often found himself going to Will about his problems and for support. They even kissed once...or twice. Will wanted people to know about them being together. Nico just wasn't ready to admit that. Now he was ready.

Nico cleared his throat, all eyes were on him. "If any one needs me, I'll be in my room. If you choose to come in, I'd appreciate if you'd knock." He said and made his way to his room where he Iris Messaged Will. The image of Will appeared who was in the forest by himself.

"Hi..." Nico said, doing his best not to make it awkward.

"What took you so long?" Will asked. He smiled when he saw Nico.

"What do you mean?" Nico replied.

"You've been gone for four days and this is the first time you've called me since you left." Will replied. He picking at a dead leaf that had fallen to the forest floor.

Nico gave him a guilty look. "I've...I've been busy. These past four days haven't been the best. Just a few moments ago Calypso was kidnapped by harpies." Nico waited for Will's response.

"Oh my gods, Nico that's awful." Will said. He looked genuinely sad. He and Calypso were acquaintances.

"Yeah." Nico said, biting his lip. "It made me realize that I don't how much time I'm gonna have with you and...I want people to know about us. Who knows, I could die tomorrow, but I want everyone to know that you are mine."

Will's face broke into a smile. His blue eyes lightened. "This is so awesome! You know what I'm going to do right when you get back to camp, right? I'm going to kiss you in front of every one including Hazel and Reyna and Calypso. You'll find them Nico, they're out there somewhere."

Nico smiled, he realized he was blushing. The fact that Will had such confidence in Nico that he would find his sister and his best friend gave him hope.

"Listen, I have to go a meeting in the Big House, but I promise I'll IM you later. I'm gonna go tell everyone at the meeting." He grinned and hung up on Nico.

Nico sigh and lay on his bed. He stared at the picture of him standing between Hazel and Reyna. They all were laughing and smiling and had their arms around each other. They were his closest family. As he looked at the picture, he wondered if the quest was really hopeless like Leo said or did they actually have a chance of finding them.