Sunburn- phoebus apollo

--viii. camp half-blood in action

AS A SEER, RHEA WAS USED TO EXPECTING the worst-case scenario and fortunately getting something a little bit better than that—but what happened in the last few hours was absolutely the Worst Case Scenario.

The good news: Nico was within her line of sight again.

The bad news: Everything else.

To summarize, Quintus was evidently Daedalus in his fifth body (because he was an automaton, apparently); Luke was in possession of Ariadne's string and was likely preparing for an attack on camp; Ethan had sworn his life and loyalty to a Titan; Kronos had risen by taking possession of Luke's body and had gotten his scythe reforged; and Nico (still a baby in Rhea's eyes) had singlehandedly saved their lives with powers Rhea didn't even know he had.

And oh—Rachel had hit Kronos in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush.

(That wasn't even mentioning the fact that they'd flown out of Daedalus's workshop on the same flimsy wings that had killed Icarus—Rhea was just relieved they hadn't managed to repeat history and fall to their deaths).

All in all, today had been—a lot, despite the fact that Rhea had seen the worst of it in her visions beforehand. It was never fun seeing it happen in real time, though, and the only thing that was keeping her from losing it was the fact that Nico was here—she didn't want to have a fit in front of the kid, especially because she was pretty sure Annabeth was about to have a meltdown of her own.

She'd been crying the entire time they ran from Kronos and his army, and once they came to a stop, she collapsed and put her head between her knees, her sobs echoing in the tunnel. Rachel was hugging herself, trying to catch her breath, while Rhea, Nico, and Percy dropped their weapons in a pile, sitting down beside each other.

"That sucked," Nico muttered, which Rhea thought summed up things pretty well.

"You saved our lives," Percy said.

Rhea reached out to wipe the dust off Nico's face as he answered, "It was Rhea's idea to drag me along, and it was the only thing Annabeth and Rachel could agree on. We needed to help you or you'd mess things up."

"Nice to know they trust me so much," Percy grumbled, giving Rhea a side-eye. She just shrugged, unrepentant, so Percy moved to shine his flashlight across the cavern. Water dripped from the stalactites like rainfall in slow-motion. "Nico... you, uh, kind of gave yourself away."

"What do you mean?" Nico asked, frowning.

"That wall of black stone? That was pretty impressive. If Kronos didn't know who you were before, he does now—a child of the Underworld."

"Big deal," Nico said, shrugging—but Rhea could tell he was scared. She could feel his fingers shaking next to her hand.

Not that she could blame him, really; she was scared, too. It was only a matter of time before Nico appeared on Kronos's radar, but she'd been hoping to avoid that scenario for as long as possible. Now, though, she knew there was no way Nico could remain safe and uninvolved in the upcoming conflict—he'd sealed his fate when he chose to help them escape.

And she was proud of him for it. Honestly. She just wished life could have been easier for him.

After a while, Annabeth lifted her head. Her eyes were red from crying. "What... What was wrong with Luke? What did they do to him?"

Rhea winced at the line of questioning, and Nico shot her a worried look, reaching out to link their fingers together. She squeezed his hand, trying to silently reassure him, even though she felt hollowed out inside.