Breaking the Gods

chapter 13

Finding Jason waiting outside the so called impenetrable doors to the Blue Ward was a bit of a surprise. Nico had been expecting it to be Percy storming the complex, coming to find him. Not the guy he just met like a week ago.

"So . . . what brings you here, Jason?" he asked. That was more to make conversation than because he hadn't already guessed.

"I could tell there was trouble afoot and figured you'd be at the center of it," said Jason. "You okay?"

Nico nodded. "Yep. Fine. Hey, I found out what those freaks are doing to demigods -Hey!"

Jason had seized Nico's chin and tilted his face back. His gaze was locked on Nico's eyes. "What happened? What happened to your eyes?" he demanded. "Did they . . ."

Nico batted Jason away. "It's fine. That's part of my story, actually. The Sparknotes version is that they're deliberately driving demigods crazy by using laser eye surgery to remove something called melanin from our eyes and turning them blue. My eyes were exposed to the lasers for a few seconds, but not long enough to cause any lasting damage. I might have lost a little melanin, but it should grow back."

I hope, he added silently. He hadn't considered that there might have been some color change to his eyes, but Jason was looking at him in a very disturbed way.

Then the older boy pulled a small flask from his belt and uncapped it. "Tilt your head back and try to keep your eyes open."

Nico obeyed. He hadn't thought of using nectar as eye-drops, but now that he did, it didn't seem to be a bad idea. But what Jason poured into his eyes wasn't nectar. "What is that?"

"Unicorn draught. Excellent for curing wounds . . . and it seems to be working. Your eyes are black as coffee again."

"As black as my soul," Nico clarified with a smirk. "Thanks."

"No prob. So, you ready to get out of here now, or was there anything you still needed from there?" Jason was clearly ready to help him either way. And though Nico's plan before had been escape, having Jason there as backup now made him reconsider.

If it was Percy, Percy would be dragging him away already by now. But Jason was almost as strong as Percy. Maybe just as strong. And he was willing to storm into the Blue Ward since they were already down there. Maybe they could find an answer for why the demigods working in the Blue Ward were going along with this after all.

This is risky, warned Anubis.

This is half of the reason why I came here, remember? Nico reminded him. Figuring out the method for their madness was only part of the reason. If we don't figure out why they're doing it, we can't know that we've really stopped it, or keep it from happening again.

That was what Percy had done at the end of the Titan War. That was what Nico was going to do now. And if he and Jason got in trouble, well, Percy was on his way to back them up. Possibly with other demigods, but Nico hoped by himself. He wanted to limit Jason's contact with other Greek demigods as much as possible until he sorted out the situation between the Grace siblings.

I can still wind this mission up tonight, Nico told Anubis. I can just do a more thorough job if Jason and I go back in and spend another ten minutes trying to get answers.

Anubis was quiet for a few moments while considering this, then telepathically nodded. Do what you think best then.

"There's one thing I didn't find out for you," Nico told Jason. "And that's why the people here want to do this to demigods. They were using their laser eye surgery thing to break the gods' connection with their children. Our eyes seem to hold what connects us to our parents' power. But some of the people working there are demigods themselves. I never got the chance to ask any of them why they were doing this."