Before I Die (Split Souls part 1)

16: His Mom. My Sister. Our Family

PERCY PoV

I'm standing on the deck. The deck of my ship. My ship, given to me for my seventeenth birthday. A ship that I should not have been able to summon.

I used power outside of my father's domain. Using the poison in the Pit, it wasn't that strange at the time. Now, it's kinda what-the-heck, but whatever. But something that was still  like... What would you call that? 'Legally'? Legally dead.

That was something I should not have been able to do. It's shouldn't be possible. Honestly? It kinda scares me. And Annabeth? She was scared of me when it was poison. How is she going to feel now?

Maybe I just found a loophole. Yeah. It was a ship. Maybe that's it and we're all overthinking it. Please let that be the case.

Well, there's only one way to find out, I guess. I fish (hehe, you catch that pun?) a drachma out of my pocket. There'd been a few in the captain's quarters. I feel my face flush when I remember Annabeth dragging me in.

You're calling Nico, I remind myself, hoping my face returns to it's normal coloration. I focus on making a mist. "Oh Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Nico Di Angelo. Probably at one of the camps or the underworld."

Nico shows up, standing outside of the Infirmary. He can't quite see me, so I'm about to say 'hi' or smething when I realize he's watching someone. I look, and notice a certain son of Apollo is the focus of his attention.

"Oooh, who you lookin' at cuz?" I tease.

His pale complexion snaps to look at me, embarrassment shown first, and then anger. "Percy!"

"Hey, hey, chill." I make a 'calm down' gesture with my hands.

"Where have you been? What's going on?" He demands.

"Huh? Chiron didn't tell you?" I frown.

"Not really. You left to go see your mom, and then Chiron sent Annabeth because something happened, but he wouldn't tell us. He's been worried since. It's driving us all nuts. So explain." He growls the last bit.

"Um, yeah. I'll explain. Can you just shadow travel over here, though? I want to ask you something too." I ask nervously.

Nico glances at Will, and then turns back to me. "Where are you?"

"The Okeano Spiti." I say. He frowns a little bit, so I explain a little more. "It's a ship. We're still in the atlantic, not too far from you."

He nods. "Don't move."

The Iris Message fades, and I wait for Nico to show up. I feel a chill run down my spine, and turn around. Nico steps out from the shadow of the main mast.

"Explain." He commands.

We sit down next to the wheel at the helm. He looks at me expectantly.

"So..." I begin. "Quick version. Mom and Paul went missing. Police sent me to stay with my mortal uncle, who happens to be Tony Stark. He works with a secret government agency and thought that I might be a terrorist. Tony and his mortal coworker/friends supported me and Annabeth and were confronted by their boss, so now we're hiding." I say.

"I follow you. Why'd they support you two?" Nico asks.

"They found out about monsters. We hid the god stuff from them until after they saved our asses from serect government crap." I say.

"So they know now? Where are they?" Nico frowns.

"Below deck. Talking to their boss. They have a cover story. Annabeth's listening in." I tell him.