Children of the Underworld

Chapter 2

Percy had grown to hate the very sight of Nico. Not that it was really Nico he was seeing, checking up on, and sparring against. It was Anubis. Or else it was an empty shell. Percy wasn't sure which he hated more.

He stood in the door of Nico's Brooklyn House room, or the Room of Death, as Sadie had aptly nick-named it, for very good reasons. Egyptian funeral murals graced the walls, statues and gravestones cluttered up half the room, and Nico's bed was a freaking sarcophagus. Laying there on it, he really did look dead.

"Come on, Anubis," said Percy. "I don't have all night."

Not true, technically. Percy had nothing else that had to be done that night. His mother wasn't even expecting him to come home until the weekend was over. While Sally Jackson hadn't been given the full situation, she knew that Nico was in trouble, and had given Percy her blessing to do whatever he needed to save him. Not that there really was anything that Percy could do.

After that first meeting on the rooftop broke up, Percy had a few days in which he'd actually been useful. He'd stuck around with the Brooklyn House kids as chaos descended on the world. He liked the Brooklyn House kids. Even though the Egyptian apocalypse technically wasn't his fight, they never made him feel unwelcome. In fact, they liked having him on their side and looked to him as something of a general, even the older students who had a lot to prove and clearly all wanted to be in charge when Carter and Sadie were away. He supposed his performance at the siege of Brooklyn House helped him earn their respect.

When they marched off to the front lines, Percy had gone with them without a second thought. That battle had been brutal, but in the end they'd been triumphant. Things actually worked out better than Percy had dared to hope they would, but he was glad. His faith in Sadie and Carter hadn't been misplaced. He'd thought that after beating such monstrous odds, fixing the problem of Nico and Anubis had to be a cinch. He'd thought wrong.

Annabeth had been through every scroll and book in the Big House's library, and had done multiple searches on Daedalus's laptop, scouring every bit of information she could get her fingers on for even a scrap of relevant material. Zia, who'd been let in on everything, was doing the same at the First Nome. Carter paid a visit to the Greek Nome while Sadie tore apart Brooklyn House's library and used some kind of book fetching shabti to obtain other texts. Jason was using all his Roman resources on the other side of the US, and Thalia was searching everywhere in between.

Not a one of them had come up with a thing.

Percy tried to help Annabeth, but only seemed to get in her way. Things between them had been tense for awhile. They'd gradually been getting better, but Percy could still see the sting of hurt in Annabeth's eyes sometimes. Somehow he didn't things would be completely okay between them again until they managed to fix this. As long as there was a semi-living, sometimes-breathing reminder of how Percy had hid the truth from Annabeth, lying around comatose for the better part of every day, they weren't going to be able to get past this.

Anubis, at Percy's insistence, didn't walk around possessing Nico's empty shell, at least not most of the time. He had a second host now, something Percy had been surprised, and inexplicably annoyed to learn about. He hated the idea of Anubis possessing Nico, but somehow the idea of Anubis having a host other than Nico felt like he was betraying Nico. But to keep Nico's muscles from atrophying, Anubis fully possessed Nico at least a few hours every day and made sure he got at least a little exercise.

Tonight, he was sparring Percy.

Percy used to love sparring Nico. Very few beings were capable of giving him a good fight. Even with other demigods, his natural abilities as a son of one of the Big Three elevated him far beyond the average demigod. Too often, when he sparred anyone at camp, egos got in the way and if Percy wasn't under the Curse of Achilles, things would have been dangerous. Percy didn't like that feeling of knowing he'd caused a friend to lose their temper so badly they really wanted to cause him harm. Not that they could, it was just the thought that counted. Nico though could not only give Percy a run for his money but fight with a cool head. True, he fought just this side of dirty (against Percy. Against enemies he hopped right over that line) but that was something Percy had not only come to expect from him, but to look forward to. He'd faced too many enemies who fought with no honor at all. Practicing with Nico, who wasn't above cheap tricks, helped Percy raise his game.