Percy Jackson and the Dark Elites

XXXXXVI

Hazel

Hazel watched Nico warily. Earlier this morning—he woke up—he appeared to be himself. They were cautious of him every step of the way. He said something that caught their attention: Piper McLean was alive. She was in Alaska. Nico was the only one who could track her down. They all wanted to save her. Yet, letting Nico walk free was like handing a weapon over to Chaos. So Hazel came with him. Because Chaos couldn't use her body and him passing through her didn't kill her like it did everyone else. 

Now, she was nervous. She was trying not to look too hard into his desperation to get to Chaos' home territory. 

"I'm telling you, we can't go into the land beyond the gods. Especially if it's Chaos' territory."

"I don't care, I'll Shadowtravel." Nico clenched his fists. He took a single step back to the tree line. 

Hazel grit her teeth. "No, we need to wait for reinforcements. Then, maybe, we can walk in and find them."

Nico screamed in frustration and kicked the snow. "What was the point of Shadowtraveling all the way here if we weare going to wait?"

"Because, we need to secure this spot for when the jets get here," Hazel stressed, putting her hand on her brother's shoulder. "we went over this." 

"Will is over there!" Nico cried. "I can feel it. Ever since Piper and I went into that dream together, I can sense her. She wouldn't be here without Will!"

Hazel pulled her hand away. She wanted to comfort him, to rationally explain the situation to them, but she knew why she couldn't. 

"He's close by, I know that hurts, but Will is going to forgive you. He probably already has."

"This isn't about forgiveness! He can hate me eternally. This is his life." Nico sniffed. "He's so close,"

"I know, but please. Stay calm. I know what it's like in there. We're in danger, we need backup before we go after them."

"What if they're in a ditch somewhere? What if they need us now? Hades knows what Percy has done to them."

Hazel sat down. They had no idea what Percy had done. They knew that Percy took Will as a hostage to escape, but has no dreams or permission beyond that. From what they knew about him, he wasn't opposed to dropping people off of buildings. Or pumping them full of drugs. 

Hazel's ears popped. Nico must've felt it too because he looked at the sky. An Elite Jet was lowering itself to the ground. It hovered above the ground and then landed. 

The doors opened and Hazel's boyfriend walked out. 

"Please say we can go in now," Nico begged. 

"You may have to," A familiar voice said. Trial marched out of the Jet, her hood down again. "Shave has been monitoring some Rider jets, apparently, several have been stolen from the inside recently, and George ordered one of them to be shot down near the border yesterday." 

"Who's George?" Hazel asked.

"Who cares?" Nico gripped his sword. "Does that mean they've been out in the cold for days?"

"Could be, if they haven't been taken back."

"Or killed," Nico hissed. 

"Listen, no—" Trial squinted at the sky, "Look."

Hazel turned around. The sky looked like it was on fire. Then, she heard a crack and it sounded like the earth was breaking open. 

"Hazel! We're going, now!"