Percy Jackson: CHB Again?

Chapter 5: We Ride the Elevator into Battle

At first, nothing happened and I thought I had failed at doing even this simple task. But then the water shimmered, and a hazy image of Nico appeared.

As soon as I saw him I wished I hadn't called. Even just looking at his silhouette coming into focus made me think about him possibly being the one who dulled my swords.

But I spoke anyway.

"Nico,"

He was in his cabin writing in a sort of old book, and I watched him hide it behind his back as he looked at me. "Tera!"

I wondered what could be in that book that he was trying to hide from me, and my stomach did a slow roll when I thought it could be some sort of sabotage-idea book.

I got right to the point. "The sword you gave me, where did you get it?"

Nico looked at me shocked. I'm sure the first thing he was hoping to hear was what was happening, and in a way, I guess that's what this was. We were sabotaged and I needed to find out who by.

"Hermes cabin...they had extra stuff, someone dropped it off for you. I didn't get a name. Why? What's going on? Where are you?" A great weight was lifted off my shoulders when I could tell he was telling the truth. Nico had nothing to do with it.

"It wasn't real celestial bronze. I couldn't kill the harpy with it." I replied, then immediately had to tell him about the harpies and Chimera; how we were charged and how I had to plough the harpy into the ground to kill it.

"And now," I added with fake enthusiasm, "we've been locked in our hotel rooms. Still figuring that out, kinda worried to fall asleep."

He opened his mouth, then closed it just as quick. "Where are you? I'll come."

"No," I said, a little too quickly. I thought about a line in the prophecy. One will fall. What if it didn't actually mean one of the six on the quest? What if Nico did come, but was killed on the way? I couldn't live with myself if that happened. "Please, no."

He frowned, and nodded reluctantly. "Call me if you need me though, please. I'll be there."

"Nico," I wanted to get the last of the questions out of the way. "That book you were writing in..."

And then a silhouette of an angry camper with a club in his hand came barrelling into the cabin. Nico's eyes widened and, with a ripple, the image dissolved. But I still heard the sound of the club whack against something with a sickening crunch.

~

"Tera!" Will shook me awake. There was light streaming in through the windows, and at first I hoped the whole ordeal with Nico and the camper had just been a nightmare, though I didn't remember falling asleep. But even if it was a dream, demigods don't have false ones; they're usually projections of what is happening, like Apollo. I needed to tell the team about it.

I noticed there were tears on my face and I was shivering, and I was contemplating whether it was about Nico, or because of the cold. One answer won, though. The cold. And through it all I felt something resembling warmness tugging at me.

"We've gotta head for Quebec City, now." Will said urgently. "The workers came by and unlocked the rooms, but they didn't kill us. The others are downstairs at the moment. We're all waiting on you. We don't want to wait and see if the staff actually are monsters."

"Slow down." I told him, pushing past thoughts aside for the moment so I could clearly think this over. Who even put the note in Will's bag? It could have been the same person who dulled my weapons, or another terrorist inside camp working for Kronos.