Jiper's Child: Children of Olympus #2

Chapter Eight: I Become a Stalker

So I've been missing for a while, which is partially to blame for a concussion and partially my procrastination. Since it's been a while, I've got a nice long chapter here, with some new stuff for the stories of both Nico and Piper. I've been writing a lot of long author's notes lately, so I'll just let you get to the story. Enjoy!

NICO

"Nico?" Nico heard Percy's voice at the door.

"Yeah?" He was in his room, experimenting with his powers. He didn't want to do it with others around, as he wasn't sure shadows were a friendly power. In the time he'd been experimenting, he'd already managed to make objects vanish and reappear within the shadows, and to turn himself into a mere shadow as camouflage.

"Someone's here for you," Percy said. Nico perked up. Was it Will? He hadn't spent time with him since that night at the lake a few days ago, but he was secretly hoping he would be able to again soon. He just wasn't good at initiating that sort of thing.

But just as he was opening the door, expecting to see Will's sunny face, he was instead greeted with dash of bright red hair.

"Rachel," Nico said in surprise.

"Hey," she said timidly, avoiding eye contact.

"I'll leave you guys alone," Percy said, sensing the tension in the air and backing away. '

"What's up?" Nico asked cautiously.

Rachel took a deep breath. "It seems that despite the fact that we cut everything off, we still have to deal with the, uh, punishment."

"The prophecy," Nico clarified.

"Yeah," Rachel smiled dryly. "I was hoping we'd avoid it, but I don't think so. I've been getting some... visions, from Artemis I think, that are giving me a better idea of what we need to do." She looked around Nico's room, which was unnaturally dark as a result of his recent experiments. "Could we maybe go somewhere? Take a walk or something? Your room is suffocating me."

It felt comfortable to Nico, but it did seem as though he had sucked some of the life out of the room itself. It was a bright, sunny day, but his room was dark, the air thinned. Somewhere in the back of his head, he wondered if he would do that to Will, too. Will was the sunny day and he was the shadows, sucking the life out of everything.

"Right," Nico said, snapping out of his thoughts. "Yeah. Let's take a walk in the woods or something."

"Gods forbid you'd let a little sunshine touch you. It might help with your tan, you know."

Nico was ready to be offended when he looked up to see Rachel smiling, and he relaxed. It would be a little awkward between the two of them, there was no way around that; but at least she was comfortable enough to make jokes around him.

* * *

Out in the woods, the two sat down in a clearing as a compromise. They were away from people, sitting in the earth, but the gap in the canopy provided Rachel with enough sunshine to satisfy her.

Then, Rachel pulled out a sheet of paper and began talking. "So we have this prophecy:

Two have broken a sacred oath

Three will be punished

Four will know

One will hurt and two will inflict

The roles are assigned

Olympus has picked

The eternal maiden