NEVER BE THE SAME . . . percy jackson

eighty six: the bad news.

ALL AROUND THE Piazza del Colosseo, traffic had come to a standstill. A crowd of mortals had gathered, probably wondering about the strange lights and sounds that had come from the ruins. As far as Brooklyn could see, none of the giants' spectacular plans for destruction had come off successfully. The city looked the same as before. No one seemed to notice the huge Greek trireme rising into the sky.

The demigods gathered around the helm. Jason bandaged Piper's sprained shoulder while Hazel sat at the stern, feeding Nico ambrosia. The son of Hades could barely lift his head. His voice was so quiet, Hazel had to lean in whenever he spoke.

Frank and Leo recounted what had happened in the room with the Archimedes spheres, and the visions Gaea had shown them in the bronze mirror. They quickly decided that their best lead for finding Annabeth was the cryptic advice Bacchus had provided: the Emmanuel Building, whatever that was. Frank started typing at the helm's computer while Leo tapped furiously at his controls, muttering, "Emmanuel Building. Emmanuel Building." Coach Hedge tried to help by wrestling with an upside-down street map of Rome.

Percy knelt next to Jason and Piper, while Brooklyn sat on a crate nearby. "How's the shoulder?" asked Percy.

Piper smiled. "It'll heal. All of you did great."

Jason elbowed Percy, giving Brooklyn a fist bump. "We're not a bad team."

"Better than jousting in a Kansas cornfield," Percy agreed.

"That's 'cause you had me," Brooklyn put a hand under her chin and smiled angelically. "Obviously."

"There it is!" Leo cried, pointing to his monitor. "Frank, you're amazing! I'm setting course."

Frank hunched his shoulders. "I just read the name off the screen. Some Chinese tourist marked it on Google Maps."

Leo grinned at the others. "He reads Chinese."

"Just a tiny bit," Frank said.

"How cool is that?"

"Guys," Hazel broke in. "I hate to interrupt your admiration session, but you should hear this."

She helped Nico to his feet. He'd always been pale, but now his skin looked like powdered milk. His dark sunken eyes reminded Brooklyn of photos she'd seen of liberated prisoners-of-war, which she guessed Nico basically was.

"Thank you," Nico rasped. His eyes darted nervously around the group. "I'd given up hope."

"You knew about the two camps all along," Percy said. "You could have told me and Brooks who we were the first day we arrived at Camp Jupiter, but you didn't."

Nico slumped against the helm. "Percy, Brooks, I'm sorry. I discovered Camp Jupiter last year. My dad led me there, though I wasn't sure why. He told me the gods had kept the camps separate for centuries and that I couldn't tell anyone. The time wasn't right. But he said it would be important for me to know . . ." He doubled over in a fit of coughing.

Hazel held his shoulders until he could stand again.

"I — I thought Dad meant because of Hazel," Nico continued. "I'd need a safe place to take her. But now . . . I think he wanted me to know about both camps so I'd understand how important your quest was, and so I'd search for the Doors of Death."

The air turned electric — literally, as Brooklyn and Jason started throwing off sparks. Whoops.

"Did you find the doors?" Percy asked.

Nico nodded. "I was a fool. I thought I could go anywhere in the Underworld, but I walked right into Gaea's trap. I might as well have tried running from a black hole."

"Um . . ." Frank chewed his lip. "What kind of black hole are you talking about?"

Nico started to speak, but whatever he needed to say must have been too terrifying. He turned to Hazel.

She put her hand on her brother's arm. "Nico told me that the Doors of Death have two sides — one in the mortal world, one in the Underworld. The mortal side of the portal is in Greece. It's heavily guarded by Gaea's forces. That's where they brought Nico back into the upper world. Then they transported him to Rome."

Piper must've been nervous, because her cornucopia spit out a cheeseburger. "Where exactly in Greece is this doorway?"

Nico took a rattling breath. "The House of Hades. It's an underground temple in Epirus. I can mark it on a map, but — but the mortal side of the portal isn't the problem. In the Underworld, the Doors of Death are in . . . in . . ."

"Tartarus," Percy guessed, his expression darkening. "The deepest part of the Underworld."

Nico nodded. "They pulled me into the pit, Percy. The things I saw down there . . ." His voice broke.

Hazel pursed her lips. "No mortal has ever been to Tartarus," she explained. "At least, no one has ever gone in and returned alive. It's the maximum-security prison of Hades, where the old Titans and the other enemies of the gods are bound. It's where all monsters go when they die on the earth. It's . . . well, no one knows exactly what it's like."

Her eyes drifted to her brother. The rest of her thought didn't need to be spoken: No one except Nico.

Hazel handed him his black sword.

Nico leaned on it like it was an old man's cane. "Now I understand why Hades hasn't been able to close the doors," he said. "Even the gods don't go into Tartarus. Even the god of death, Thanatos himself, wouldn't go near that place."

Leo glanced over from the wheel. "So let me guess. We'll have to go there."

Nico shook his head. "It's impossible. I'm the son of Hades, and even I barely survived. Gaea's forces overwhelmed me instantly. They're so powerful down there . . . no demigod would stand a chance. I almost went insane."

Nico's eyes looked like shattered glass. Brooklyn wondered if something inside him had broken permanently.

"Then we'll sail for Epirus," she said. "We'll just close the gates on this side."

"I wish it were that easy," Nico said. "The doors would have to be controlled on both sides to be closed. It's like a double seal. Maybe, just maybe, all right of you working together could defeat Gaea's forces on the mortal side, at the House of Hades. But unless you had a team fighting simultaneously on the Tartarus side, a team powerful enough to defeat a legion of monsters in their home territory—"

"There has to be a way," Jason said.

Nobody volunteered any brilliant ideas.

Brooklyn thought her stomach was sinking. Then he realized the entire ship was descending toward a big building like a palace.

Annabeth. Nico's news was so horrible Brooklyn had forgotten she was still in danger, which made her feel guilty.

"We'll figure out the Tartarus problem later," Percy said. "Is that the Emmanuel Building?"

Leo nodded. "Bacchus said something about the parking lot in back? Well, there it is. What now?"

"We have to get her out," Percy insisted.

"Well, yeah," Leo agreed. "But, uh . . ."

He looked like he wanted to say, What if we're too late?

Wisely, he changed tack. "There's a parking lot in the way."

Percy looked at Coach Hedge. "Bacchus said something about breaking through. Coach, you still have ammo for those ballistae?"

The satyr grinned like a wild goat. "I thought you'd never ask."