Everyone Deserves to be Happy (Solangelo)

The Veteran and the Soldier (Nico)

"Leo is with Calypso. He was on Ogygia, last I saw. But he's flying away right now. On Festus."

"WHAT?" Percy stood up, his chair screeching back with an awful creak. When he spoke, his words came out in a torrent. "Chiron I have to be part of the quest I need to find him!"

"Patience, Percy." Chiron spoke calmly, considering the situation. "We do not even know the quest yet. There has been no prophecy." He smiled, but there was a storm behind his eyes. "And don't forget the gods have chosen Nico di Angelo."

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Oh joy, Nico thought. The gods have chosen me as their next little pawn. Haven't I suffered enough? After all. Nico smiled bitterly to himself. They were the ones who made me who I am.

People like Percy can pretend we always make our own choices, but that's not always true. My name is a curse. Di Angelo is a curse, a heritage of pain still living in the 40's, stuck in a time where everyone would hate me.

But now, in the 21st century where I can be who I am, I can't be happy. I can't live in a world where everyone I loved would be gone.

Bianca.

No.

I can't think about her.

Everyone deserves to be happy.

Right?

Why can't I deserve Will?

"Nico?" Chiron was staring at him, a little creeped out.

"What?" Nico's reply came out sharper than intended.

Percy, still in front of a knocked over chair, replied. "You. Um. Started smoking again. Just a little."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Will coughed loudly. "Chiron, should I take him back to the infirmary?"

"I'm not SICK." Nico yelled. He was tired of being alternately treated like a nuclear bomb and a lily. "I'll do whatever I have to."

There was a silence as everyone looked at Nico, and then looked away, pretending to examine their fingernails or bush off imaginary specks of dust from their clothes. Clarisse, oblivious to the tension, continued polishing her various weaponry.

Finally, Annabeth stood up, in a much statelier fashion than her boyfriend had.

"Nico." She looked at him with her piercing gray eyes. Eyes he used to hate with a vengeance. "You can judge how well you feel-"

Will looked up, about to object, but Annabeth turned her gaze on him. His mouth snapped shut.

"As I was saying. "Nico, I think that you need to decide if you can take this quest. Because it is clear it is a quest. And it is your quest."

Nico steadier his breath before answering. "In Camp Jupiter, I was called the ambassador for Pluto. For Hades, I guess, since I am a Greek. It's hard to tell, honestly. Death is eternal and universal." He paused.

A few people started muttering, but they stopped when he continued to speak.

"It is my responsibility, both as a child of death and as a...friend...to find Leo. And I am the only one who can lead this quest. I've been on some...um...let's call them 'non-sanctioned adventures.' But then again, I'm pretty sure everyone in this room has as well. Cough cough Percy. Cough cough many many times. But anyways, I think-no-I know I am ready."

Nico finished, and he stared nervously around the room. All jokes aside, he really did mean what he had said. The way he'd seen Leo painted in his dreams, he knew every expression on his face. They had been so often one on his.

He knew what it was like to feel like an extra, to hold in your tears until you were alone, to pick yourself up when you fell because there was no one there to catch you.

To think you found love. Until reality pried apart any happiness you had with it's icy fingers and cast you aside.

Yes, Nico di Angelo knew Leo Valdez the way a veteran might know a current soldier.

He had been through the pain. A different experience sure, in a different setting with a few different comrades in arms, but the gritty reality was the same.

He knew he had to talk to Leo, and if he was alive, he needed to bring him home.

Nico was jerked back into reality by Chiron, who had just said his name.

"What?"

"I was saying, that you need to consult the Oracle. Or I guess just talk to Rachel. This quest is clear. You must find Leo Valdez and bring him back to Camp Half Blood."

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"Rachel!" Nico yelled. "RACHEL!"

They had been searching the woods for her for over an hour, and still hadn't managed to find her. They had gotten some very disapproving looks from dryads, but other than that, nothing.

Rachel was an interesting person, as far as Nico remembered. He knew that she stayed at CHB during the summer, and went to finishing school during the year. Whatever.

He continued to crash through the undergrowth, until he saw her standing in front of Bunker 9. No one had been allowed inside it since it was discovered by Leo and Festus, but clearly that wasn't going to stop Rachel. Then again, you had to remember that this was the girl who once hit Kronos in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush.

She wasn't easily intimidated.

He chuckled, and she turned around suddenly. She looked at him, about to issue a 'hello' when she gasped, and green mist began to pool out of her eyes and mouth.

The mist began to shroud the entire clearing, until everything was obscured by a dense fog. Nico stepped forward, and was immediately face to face with Bianca.

He tried to reach forward, touch her face, hug her, but as soon as he took a step in her direction she melted into the figure of his mother. He gasped, and took another step but recoiled. For this was not truly her. It was a caricature, drawn as if she was a zombie. She was dead. This was a slap in the face, like no other. He felt like a little kid again, a little kid who was being sent away to Nevada after seeing his mother die at the hands of Zeus.

Her rotting flash glowed green with the power of Oracle of Delphi. And a rasping voice issued from her lips, so unlike his mother's rich tones that it grated on his ears.

"You shall travel east using your cloak of night.

You shall see the dragon in your sights.

Find Solace in your heart,

And hate will finally depart.

Your angel's wings will guide you home

Past the city of ancient Rome.

Until it all goes up in ashes and smoke,

And on your own word, you will choke."