𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐢━━Nico di Angelo

15

"She" 

"AAAH- Oh its just you" 

It was a relatively calm night. The cool Italian breeze blowing on deck was a welcome change from the sweat he had woken up in after his nightmare. He could barely remember what it had been about, a giant wrapped in robes made of shadows, with dragon like legs that were the color of ash, but mostly all Ajax was able to see were his bright blue eyes shining with malice. 

That's how he found himself above deck. Usually a team of demigods alternated shifts to keep watch on deck. Not only were the frequent Numinae attacks a problem, they also did considerable damage to the ship. 

They had come back on their original course with no other plan than just trying to go through the mountains. But they all knew it wouldn't work. The Argo II would crumble into pieces before the could make it over to the other side. 

Ajax had just sent Leo to get some sleep since he could stay on watch with Coach who was practically half asleep already. 

It was incredibly quiet, which is why Ajax was alarmed when Nico suddenly spoke from next to him. The boy was practically made of shadows, he made no noise, he could pop out of seemingly nowhere and he had the whole emo thing going on. 

"You can't just sneak up on people like that" Ajax resisted the urge to roll his eyes. No one infuriated him like Nico. He could still remember the jolt of lightning up his arm when he punched Nico. "What the fuck did you even say?"

"She." Nico repeated. The moonlight shone on his pale face. Ajax sometimes thought he wasn't real, a mirage, a shadow, an illusion. He was unreal. Nico wasn't anything remarkable, infact he tried hard to go unnoticed. But for someone like Ajax who hated his guts, it was difficult to ignore him, "Yesterday, you said she"

Ajax didn't say anything, choosing only to glare at the boy. Maybe if Nico could read minds, he could catch the panic, but also the mental image Ajax had of punching Nico again. 

"You were talking about yourself, but you said she" 

Neither of them looked at each other. They had both turned to look out of the ship. 

"I don't like you Nico" Ajax stated quite bluntly, he tried to keep his voice steady. "And I've made that clear. I think its best if you leave me the fuck alone. What I say or do is none of your business and-"

"You weren't always a boy" 

"I-" Ajax stumbled over his words, "Um- That's not- How- I don't-"

"I saw it in my dream" Nico said, "You didn't look like this during the battle of Manhattan. That's why it took me longer to realize it was you. I knew you from somewhere, I knew it  the moment I saw you. But I didn't remember where I had seen you before"

Nico paused, he turned to look at Ajax for a moment. 

He could see the stark difference in how the boy in front of him used to look and how he looked now. 

Ajax wasn't... bad to look at. Nico still remembered the dream version- the Ajax he killed. He looked like a girl. Long, dark hair tied behind, graceful strikes of a sword made of magic, power coursing through her. He remembered seeing the girl getting stabbed. He remembered her begging him for help.

But Nico had always been a coward. He couldn't live with what he had done. He'd rather run away and pretend it never happened rather than trying to help her and fail. 

Nico wasn't heartless. He pretended to be, but he wasn't. Of course it bothered him that he killed someone. He was sick to the stomach with guilt after the war. He had tried to justify it, he had gone over the scenarios multiple times. Eventually he turned the demigods he killed into monsters in his head. If he thought of them as monsters, the guilt lessened.