| The Rising Moon: The Awakening of a Demi-Goddess |

█▓▒­░⡷⠂ᴛʜᴇ Qᴜᴇꜱᴛ ᴄᴏɴᴛɪɴᴜᴇꜱ⠐⢾░▒▓█

 solivagant

(adj.) wandering alone——————————————————————————————————————————————————Nico de Angelo had never been more heartbroken than this. Okay, there was the time he lost his sister. That was the first time his world had shattered. He never thought that anyone would be able to get close enough to him to make it happen all over again.

But somebody did. And that somebody betrayed him. It had been officially six months (to clarify: three months after Celestial made the deal with Eris,) since the betrayal, and he still felt sour and bitter all over.

Had everything been a lie? The smiles? The hugs? The orphans? The.. the kiss? Just thinking of it made hi want to throw up.

She was been lying all the time, wasn't she? He thought, his usual glare plastered across his face. It had taken a while for everyone to recover from the fire; nobody got hurt, but everyone was shocked when he numbly told them what Celeste had done.

"Are you-"

"I'm fine!" He snapped at Leo, before walking into the woods. The fire had completely destroyed the Argo III, so they had no where to stay. Luckily, they were able to iris message Chiron and tell him what happened using a drachma that Hazel summoned from the ground. Despite the odds, everyone was still willing to fight the Wraiths, even Nico. He wanted to kill the side that Celeste had joined. To show her mistake. Rage slowly filled him as he felt a cool hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, Nico, are you alright?" Hazel's soft voice made him calm down for a moment. She was his half sister, and before he thought he could trust her. But I can't. Because that's exactly what he had done to Celeste. He gave her a numb nod before staring at his food, poking it. Chiron was all against them continuing their mission, but they all protested and argued, and he reluctantly agreed.

It was now their last meal before they were going to head out, and the tension was in the air. A few months ago, Celeste was with them, flinging Leo up in the air and causing laughter and jokes. But now? She was on the other side. And he would never forgive her.

"Is.. everyone ready?" Chiron asked them hesitantly. They all slowly looked at each other, giving nods of agreement to one another. Nico noticed that most eyes were on him, as if verifying if he was alright with doing this after 'the incident'. That's what they all silently decided to call it. Or at least whenever Nico was around.

They all climbed aboard the Argo IV, which Leo had been working on for the past 6 months. He had been so dedicated to rebuild his precious vehicle, It was kind of impressive. Except Nico didn't care. He didn't care about anything these days. The Argo IV was almost an exact duplicate of the Argo III, except it seemed more sleeker and more modern, but still maintained it's elegant flair. Not that Nico cared. Like stated before, he didn't care about anything these days.

"Okay guys, so we need to find some adamantine. The question is, though, where can we find it?" She asked, pointing to the map she had in front of the others. Jason raised his hand.

"Does it give an aura of some sort? Like something noticeable that we could detect?" He asked, his blonde hair glowing in the sunlight. Annabeth shook her head.

"Not that I know of; Percy?" She asked her boyfriend, who had been twirling his riptide pen in his fingers.

"Maybe we could ask Hazel if her powers can detect Adamantine in the earth so she can draw it out? He asked creatively. Annabeth's eyes shot up, writing down Hazel's Powers? On the board. Hazel gave her a thumbs up for being alright with her powers in use. Piper sat up.

"What about the compass? Didn't you use adamantine to locate the batch we were heading to?" Piper asked. Annabeth sadly shook her head.

"That's not possible. The compass only works if interacted with an object, and the only person to have had adamantine was..." she trailed off, a flash of sadness in her eyes. Nico's heart clenched at the thought of the brown and white haired girl with her sea green and Alice blue eyes. Annabeth cleared her throat.

"Hazel, do you mind searching the ground for adamantine? Or at least find some sort of aura?" Annabeth asked kindly. The daughter of Pluto accepted eagerly, and they all stepped out of the Argo IV to see what Hazel could do.

She gently placed her hand on the Earth and felt it's presence, and Nico could see it was taking a lot of power to locate it.

"41°38'02.2"N 87°46'06.9"W!" She gasped suddenly, standing up. Percy gave her a surprised look.

"Woah, you just said the coordinates?" He asked astonished. Annabeth gave him a playful look.

"Shut up seaweed brain; you know you can also say coordinates when you're in the ocean," She said teasingly. Nico's heart cracked. Celeste could have been that for me, his heart whispered. He pushed it away imminently. No, she was a traitor. Frank had a pen and pencil out, and was frantically writing the coordinates.

They all rushed back towards the Argo IV, Leo inputing the coordinates in a map scanner of some sort.

"Everybody get ready! We're heading to Chicago!" He announced.