Light in the Darkness - Nico X Reader

Chapter 27, Mindscape

I woke on the familiar cotton sheets of my bed.

The soft chirping of birds in the distance told me I was at camp. I could hear swords clashing, arrows firing. All normal.

The Athena cabin was half empty. A few campers were still snoozing on the bed. After all, it was Saturday. The tranquil dripping of the fountain outside was soft, and regular. Everything was normal. Yet something seemed out of place.

I got dressed carefully, doing my best to not wake the other campers. I walked into the library-living room. I scanned the tightly packed shelves for something interesting to read

Of Mice and Men

Wait. I thought Clarisse had to do an assignment for this book and ended up burning the pages out of sheer frustration. How is it here?

Confused, I left.

I stretched my arms as I walked over to the dining pavilion. Everything was so familiar. Exactly the same. A little too familiar.

"Annieeeee," I lazily called. I walked over to the Athena table to see Annabeth chewing on an apple. Her grey eyes slightly unfocused, her features told me she was deep in thought.

I slipped onto the bench next to her. "Annie?"

"Hey," she munched on the apple halfheartedly.

"What's up?"

"Nothing's up... I mean," she sighed. "Something's wrong, everything seems-"

"Too familiar," we said in unison.

"You've been feeling that too?" She asked.

"Yeah, it's like a huge case of deja vu,"

"Something's wrong..."

I left to grab some food to eat and sacrifice.

I trotted over to the sacrificial flame.

"Gahh!" I dropped the plate, but a guy with shaggy dark hair caught it. It was Nico. Wait. Nico?

I blushed and took the plate. "Th-thanks," I mumbled like an idiot.
"You're welcome," He mumbled back. He proceeded to go over to his table, it was empty except for him. I heard someone wolf whistle and saw Percy wiggling his eyebrows at me. "You got Nico to say 'you're welcome'. You know he has never said that to anyone except his sister right?" He drew an air heart around me and continued to chuckle.
"Not helping Percy," I gave him a friendly punch to the arm. He continued to laugh. We went over to the fire and dumped some of our food into it. A sacrifice.

I suddenly stopped. My head ached. I fell onto my knees, panting. "Anira? Are you okay?" Nico dashed over.

Deja vu. I was having a deja vu attack. That's not even a thing.

"Gahhh," there was another cry. Percy leaned on the table, one hand supporting him, the other pressing his temple.

"What's happening?" A random camper called out.

There were a few more moments of raw anguish. Then it stopped.

"I-I'm fine now," I stuttered.

He helped me up and over to the Athena table. Annabeth interviewing Percy.

They came over. "Something's definitely wrong," Percy managed.

"We need to figure this out," Annabeth murmured.

We left to find the next best puzzle solver that we could rely on. Leo.

He'd probably be in bunker 9. Oiling Festus or something.

We approached the large cliff side to the sound of light whistling. No doubt Leo. Annabeth pounded on the wall. "Open up, Leo!"

An outline of a door appeared on the cliff side. It glowed orange. Leo stepped through.

"Helloooo, what brings you here today?" He greeted us with a warm smile, which then melted off his face when he saw the condition Percy and I were in.

"What happened?" His face etched with worry.

"Long story," I informed.

"Come in, I think this is going to take a while"

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A/N 703 Reads?! WHOA! Thank you guys so much! Jakxkdoskskddk. Again, please vote and comment. I reaaaaaally appreciate it. Thanks again! I'll update tomorrow. Bye!

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