Camellia

4: "Nice fighting with you, Handyman."

It had been a strange couple of days, Pax reflected, as he did his best not to die fighting an army of monsters. Well, fighting  was an exaggeration. Pax was supposed to be manning the canons he and the Hephaestus cabin had set up, but he had become sort of busy doing favours for the other campers, and now he was lost on the battlefield, attempting to make his way over to the canons. 

Annabeth had been given her first quest, which was an upside, but they'd been captured by Luke (again), which had been a down. They'd found the god Pan, which had been an up for Grover, only for him to fade into oblivion, which wasn't as great. But they'd also found Nico...and Pax wasn't sure what to make of him. 

Instead of jumping off a cliff after Annabeth last winter, Pax had been supposed to look after Bianca and Nico di Angelo. But Bianca had died on the quest to rescue him and Annabeth. And as a result, Nico had gone AWOL. Right before he'd revealed himself to be a son of Hades, and thus the one who would decide the fate of Olympus. 

They'd managed to find Nico during Annabeth's quest. He didn't hold them completely responsible for his sister's death, but as Bianca had died trying to save Annabeth and Pax, Nico had held them indirectly to blame. Still, they'd managed to bring him round and Pax was starting to feel attached to the guy. And despite Nico seemingly having an interest in Annabeth, he was an amazing hero to have on a quest. Speaking of...

Out of the corner of his eye, Pax spotted a shape on the ground and rushed over. There was no mistaking the figure; it was Nico di Angelo alright and he was unconscious. Probably after summoning too many skeletons. Pax checked his pulse and cursed in Ancient Greek. He was no doctor, but the fact that Nico was barely breathing was bad. 

Thankfully, a child of Apollo was to hand, firing arrows a few metres to Pax's right. Pax had no clue why the Apollo cabin had let an eleven-year-old into the fray, but he supposed they needed the more help they could get, and this was no time to complain. 

"Will!" he yelled, for once priding himself on knowing all the younger campers' names, and waved his right hand to get his attention, "Will, over here! Help!" 

Will Solace turned round, brushing his messy blond hair out of his eyes as he took in the scene. His blue eyes widened and without hesitation he rushed over. He knelt down beside Nico and turned him over onto his back, revealing Nico's face as he did so. He raised his eyebrows slightly at Pax. 

"New kid," Pax answered the silent question, "A son of Hades."

Will nodded, as if that explained everything, and quickly rummaged in his kit for nectar. 

"Hold him," he commanded. Pax obeyed, sitting Nico upright so Will could pour nectar down his throat. The effect was instantaneous. Nico eyes blinked open and, as he groggily took in his surroundings, he immediately focussed on Will. 

"Who..." he started. 

"Will Solace, at your service," Will said, smiled. He got up and did a quick bow, "Now, if you excuse me, I've got other patients to attend to." And he raced off. Pax was relieved this time to see it was the infirmary this time rather than the middle of the fray. 

Nico's eyes followed him in wonder. Ah, Pax thought as he helped Nico up, perhaps I was wrong about him being interested in Annabeth. 

The moment Pax had got Nico to safety, he made his way (somehow unscathed) to the Hephaestus canons, where Shane and Nyssa were operating. But as soon as he got there, Nyssa handed him a sword and pushed him into the battle. 

"We've got this," she grinned, "and they need more fighters."

Pax made a why me gesture but obediently ran into the battle. Soon he was surrounded by all sorts of monsters and, waving his sword around manically, didn't know where he was cutting. He had hoped he was making some progress but the sword was suddenly struck out of his hand. Pax fell onto his backside and a winged monster stood over him, teeth bared. It was about to kill him when a knife appeared in its' midsection and it disintegrated. 

Behind it was Annabeth, who smiled and tossed him his sword (which he fumbled to catch). 

"Nice fighting with you Handyman," she said as he got up. 

"Yeah," he said, unsteadily, as Annabeth began to charge at the army of monsters. It was the most beautiful sight he had even seen, and despite being a pacifist, he knew he would follow her anywhere.