The New Moon, Son of Artemis.Getting Settled.

P.O.V. Nico DiAngelo

Camp fell quickly. After the death of Percy and Jack most of our army scattered. The Romans took Half Blood Hill within the hour. The rest of the camp by nightfall. I don't know about the survivors, there are to many dead to make out Greek or Roman. I held up in the hypnos cabin for nearly a day, but we were over run. Most of the campers with me were captured, to be interrogated or executed or worse. Sophie was the last standing, she fought hard even through the tears stinging through her eyes. She fought for the young campers, tried to seal the entry way so that the littluns were safe for a while more. They stripped us down to nearly nothing, just the under garments. After a day of torture I shadow traveled out, as far as I could go. I've learned that going to places that I've been before is easier, so I got to the clearing. Back when I met Jack, when he was trying to get rid of Sophie. I needed sleep, and food, and water. I didn't have any food of the gods so I had to try to forage. I was never a nature kid, the Demeter kids would always shoo me off. Their plants would wither and die around me.

I was able to get just enough food for me to stop fantasizing about gnawing on my arm. It still looked pretty tasty though. I had no energy still, so I wandered. And here we are now, lost in the woods. I have a big stick as a weapon, and am one of the sons of the big three. I sat down, I have to focus. I was on a downed tree stump with my legs crossed at the ankles. I close my eyes, and call upon the dead. I try to find a place littered with souls. I found one about a quarter mile east, so that is the way I marched.
I came up on the ruins of a hospital, what was left of a tall light mint colored building. Something happened here, I felt an evil presence. Not, not evil but ancient. Death left its mark on this place. People die in hospitals all the time, the goal is that it is as painless as possible and that the mortality rate is lower than if there were no hospitals. What happened here though, left a mark for eons yet to pass. This much ambient life energy made my head spin, between hunger, dehydration, and the energy buzzing around me, I couldn't see straight. This life energy wasn't to be used for a while though, and with no one else around I don't have to worry about the mist covering this.
I stretched for a moment, then I called forth power. But I have hesitation. If I don't do this right it will use energy that I don't have, it'll dank my very soul. But if I do this right, then the choices are limitless with the power I will have. I'm in no mood to have my soul sucked into a gauntlet of pain and misery, but where is gain without a toss of the dice every once in a while? I found resolve, and called forth power.
πνεύματα Καλώ τη δύναμή σας, να πάρετε τη ζωή που δεν χρησιμοποιήθηκε ποτέ. ψυχές Καλώ τη δύναμή σας για να δείτε τις ενέργειες μου. Καλώ τους νεκρούς, όπως ο πλοίαρχος του είδους σας!
There might as well been a thermonuclear explosion insider mitochondria.
The energy of life flowed into me with astounding force, charging me up. It felt better than Jacks old ambrosia and nectar bombs. But like those, it burns after too much. My body couldn't take this power, I was doomed. I forced my body together, black steam poured out of my every pore as I sunk to the ground. There was so much left though, and it was fighting to to give itself up to me. The scream escaped my lips, but I didn't hear it.
The pain engulfed me, it was my only thought, my being was consumed by it. My entire will was focused on keeping myself together, both in the literal and figurative sense. Molecule by molecule I had to focus my self. Still though, souls were trying to rejuvenate my essence. I couldn't stop them, they were fixed on the goal. There was nothing I could do, I let go.
Time stopped, everything stopped moving. Nothing, yet everything was in motion, the souls slowed and became aimless, my thoughts still moved. It was perfect chaos. A hole in the earth opened, a dark rectangle that sucked away the light and gave off its own deathly glow. I know where it leads. It's the stairs to home, and a form walked up it.
"Master DiAngelo, it has been awhile since you have visited your father. You should have come sooner, avoided the war of camps." The figure said. "Release me from your clutch 'uncle'." I said uncle with near venom dripping from my tongue . "Tut tut tut. You should know better. You will die when I leave, but if you come with me, we can make a deal." He smiled evilly as he said this. "You don't make deals, you make what is deserved by the dead 'uncle'" He just chuckled. "We have made already a few deals, one with some friend of yours. Now if I leave then you die, painfully and screaming to the heavens of Olympus, but if you come with me, you will live as someone anew, and maybe even see your sister." That snapped me, I was interested. "What will you grant me then uncle?" I asked. He only smiled his grin again. "You will have to see, but I warn you that I give you I leave in thirty seconds, with you or not. Decide or die, well you'll die either way. DiAngelo will be extinguished from this world, but your soul will live on there. Twenty seconds left choose wisely." I was running out of time, the decision was hard. I deserve Elysium, but do I deserve to die? "Ten seconds." As he began to turn away he said this. "I accept!" I yelled. He stopped for a few seconds, "Very good master DiAngelo. You have made a good choice." He held out his hand, but I didn't take it. He backhanded me with the hand and I went stumbling back. He curtly spun and walked down the dark stone stairs, they shone with a red like blood. Deep crimson blood as if it was running down like a water fall.
We walked for nearly two minutes and the wound in the earth still did not close.
"Why has the portal not closed?" I asked my uncle. He didn't slow down, "We have some one else on his way up." That was all he said before I saw someone heading up the stairs. Who it was made my jaw drop. Jack was walking up to the surface. His face was blank, like he wasn't really there. I reached out to him but my hand was slapped by my uncle. I leaped down the stairs past him though and grabbed Jack by the shoulders and spun him to look into his eyes. He looked confused. Like he didn't know me, almost like he didn't know himself. "Jack, it's me! What happened? You died!" I was basically screaming at him. He just looked at me, he didn't even react to his name. My uncle shoved me down the steps, I didn't hear him come up behind me. I tumbled down for what seemed like a mile of steps but was maybe twenty. "He has made a deal, just as you have. It's details don't involve you so don't ask. Now, let us hurry, we want to make your deal." Uncle's voice was deeper was we descended.
After about an hour of walking down the stairway to hell, we reached the council. My first uncle spoke first. "We have came to a hasty decision, and to save the little of your being as we can, all we need is your consent." I nodded, "What must I partake in for this deal, what happened to my body and soul?" My third uncle looked at me gravely, "How much do you know about the grim reaper?"

Well here we are, back to the real world. I wrote the Nico chapter, wether you like the ending or not. Fantasize about what will happen next, but yes, Jack and Nico will come back. And twists are to come with the surviving cast of camp half blood. I hope you will continue reading the story of the son of Artemis, after his second death.