𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐢━━Nico di Angelo

66

"Er- first off" Leo said, "Okay, the labyrinth is out of the question"

"And secondly," Leo turned to Nico. The son of Hades still glared at everyone, but especially Leo. Ajax guessed they had a lot to talk about later. "Why did you call him that?"

Nico's eyes went comically wide in surprise.

"What does it mean?" Ajax spoke up. He knew Spanish was  similar to Italian, but could the word mean the same in both languages? "Tesoro, he calls me that all the time. He said it means a pain in the ass"

Leo raised his eyebrows. He glanced at Nico who had already taken out his stygian iron sword to nonchalantly flip the grip in his hand. The message was clear.

"Yes...." Leo chose his words carefully, "That.. is exactly what it means"

Ajax frowned at the two in disbelief.

"We should focus on the task at hand" Reyna cast her eyes around the group. "Other ideas?"

"I could go," Frank offered, not sounding very happy about it. "If I'm a praetor, I should go. Maybe we could rig some sort of sled, or—"

"No, Frank Zhang." Reyna gave him a weary smile. "I hope we will work side by side in the future, but for now your place is with the crew of this ship. You are one of the seven of the prophecy."

"I'm not," Nico said.

Everybody stopped eating. Percy stared across the circle at Nico, trying to decide if he was joking.

Hazel set down her fork. "Nico—"

"I'll go with Reyna," he said. "I can transport the statue with shadow-travel."

"Uh..." Percy raised his hand. "I mean, I know you just got all nine of us to the surface, and that was awesome. But a year ago you said transporting just yourself was dangerous and unpredictable. A couple of times you ended up in China. Transporting a forty-foot statue and two people halfway across the world—"

"You ended up in China?" Ajax wheezed. It felt good to ignore what had happened between them. Was that what they would continue to do? Ignore it?

"I've changed since I came back from Tartarus." Nico rolled his eyes at Ajax.

"Nico," Jason intervened, "we're not questioning your power. We just want to make sure you don't kill yourself trying."

"I can do it," he insisted. "I'll make short jumps—a few hundred miles each time. It's true, after each jump I won't be in any shape to fend off monsters. I'll need Reyna to defend me and the statue."

Reyna had an excellent poker face. She studied the group, scanning their faces, but betraying none of her own thoughts. "Any objections?"

Ajax raised his hand.

"I object," He said. "Sorry, I've always wanted to say that, it's so dramatic."

"Did you actually have an objection or did you just say it to sound dramatic?" If Nico's death glare was scary, Reyna's almost made Ajax want to run away.

"Um no, I actually do object" He said, "My job here is done. I was mentioned in the prophecy about the mark of athena and everything from it has already come to pass"

Percy nodded, deep in thought. Nico looked at Ajax in confusion, asking him what he was doing.

Frankly, Ajax wasn't sure himself.

All he knew was that he didn't want to stay if Nico wasn't.

"Twins snuff out the angel's breath" Piper recounted, her eyes traveling to Ajax instead of Nico, probably remembering how he'd referred to the son of Hades as an Angel. Ajax felt heat rise to his cheeks. "Who holds the key to endless death"

"Son of Magic, joining late" Ajax said, "Powers of mist, control their fate"

"You're right, it looks like that prophecy has come to an end" Jason said, "And you're not mentioned in the prophecy of the seven"

"As much as I love you guys, I have no interest in fighting a bunch of giants"

"So you want to leave?" Hazel spoke up, "We just became friends, you can't leave"

Ajax grinned at her, "I know all of you are in love with me, don't even deny it, but I'm afraid someone will have to keep Nico in line"

"Hey!"

"He might turn into a corn plant again"

"I told you to never mention it again!"

Ajax paid him no mind. He saw Piper and Jason stifle their laughter, and wiggle their eyebrows. Gods help him, he was embarrassingly clearly crushing on Nico.

"I want to go with you guys. Plus, I can help with the shadow traveling"

"Very well," Reyna said, with the finality of a judge. If she had a gavel, Ajax suspected she would have banged it. "I see no better option. The three of us it is, the optimal number for a quest"

"You should take Coach Hedge," Frank blurted.

Percy stared at him. "Uh, what, Frank?"

"The coach is the best choice," Frank said. "The only choice. He's a good fighter. He's a certified protector. He'll get the job done."

"A faun," Reyna said.

"Satyr!" barked the coach. "And, yeah, I'll go. Besides, when you get to Camp Half-Blood, you'll need somebody with connections and diplomatic skills to keep the Greeks from attacking you. Just let me go make a call—er, I mean, get my baseball bat."

"Four is too many" Reyna shook her head, "Three is preferred"

"No!" Ajax spoke up too. "We have to take Hedge, he's my emotional support father figure"

Coach got up and shot Frank and Ajax an unspoken message.

"You're a good kid, Avery" Hedge said. Ajax sniffed.

Despite the fact that he'd just been volunteered for a likely suicide mission, the coach looked grateful. He jogged off toward the ship's ladder, tapping his hooves together like an excited kid.

Nico rose. "We should go, too, and rest before the first passage. We'll meet at the statue at sunset."

We.

They were back to being we. They.

Nico tilted his head towards the ship, clearly asking Ajax to follow.

Ajax scrambled to his feet. At this point Nico could ask him to follow into Tartarus and Ajax wouldn't bat an eye.

"Sweet dreams, Loverboy" Piper called from behind them.

Ajax flipped her off.