The Previous Evening . . .

Something was wrong with Nico. Bianca was sure of it. And it wasn't because of some big sister instinct. It was because suddenly, all her attempts at checking in on her brother by every mystic means that she attempted, were blocked. It was like something, or someone, was deliberately shielding Nico from all surveillance, and who or whatever it was, it was powerful. As in god-strength powerful.

Children of the Underworld had some special privileges that normal demigods didn't have, both when they were alive, and after they died. That was how Bianca had been able to watch over her little brother, even after her death, and contact Percy back when Nico's powers first began developing, and he needed help even though he didn't know it. Unfortunately, watching and communicating with Iris messages were the extent of what she could do in the world of the living, after her death. She couldn't go back and make contact with Nico, and see what was going on with her own eyes unless she was summoned, and since she had told Nico it was better not to summon her, she didn't have much hope of that happening.

So Bianca reached out through the means that were open to her and contacted the most dependable mutual friend that she and her brother had: Percy Jackson.

It was harder to get in touch with Percy than she'd expected. He was the son of the sea god, yet there wasn't so much as a water glass his bedroom at his apartment. She'd thought for sure that he would have a fish tank, or Zen fountain. Even a lava lamp would have been sufficient, but no such luck. Every other time he was near an open connection, he was either in public, or near it too briefly for Bianca to actually establish a connection. Except when he was in the shower, and Bianca didn't look in on him when he was in there.

It was weeks before Bianca finally managed to contact Percy, and then only after he'd gone to Camp Half-Blood. In fact, the first time she tried to Iris message him on his first evening there, the connection wouldn't go through. She tried again repeatedly until finally her message got through. Percy's room blinked into view in the rainbow right as it seemed Percy was getting ready for bed.

"Percy!" snapped Bianca, glad to have finally gotten through.

Percy had been right in the process of taking off his shirt. He yelped in surprise and struggled to both get himself untangled and draw his sword at the same time. The end result was that he ended up ripping one of the side seams of his shirt.

"Who's there?" he demanded. "Nico?"

"No, it's me," Bianca called to him. "Bianca," she clarified.

She saw Percy mouth her name in surprise, then glance toward the door. He hurried over to the fountain and tossed a couple gold drachmas into it. "You just missed your brother," he told her. "Hang on, I'll run and get him -"

"Wait!"

Percy froze in midstride. "What's wrong?"

"I think that something's wrong with Nico," Bianca told him.

"Wrong how?" asked Percy.

"I don't know," admitted Bianca. "You said he was just here?"

Percy nodded. "He seems fine to me. He's still got all his limbs attached, all ten fingers, and as far as I know, all ten toes. And he didn't seem upset about anything . . . in fact, this past month he's been as happy as I've ever seen him."

"This past month?" asked Bianca.

"Yeah."

"I haven't been able to check in on him at all for about a month," Bianca told Percy. "Every time I try it's like I run into a glass wall."

"Check in on him?" Percy asked.

Bianca nodded.

Percy came closer to his fountain with a frown on his face. "You check in on him often?"

"Well . . . he's my little brother."

"Um, well . . . does he know that? That you check in on him I mean," said Percy quickly. "Not that you're his sister. I know he already knows that."

Percy seemed unusually nervous, Bianca noticed. "I don't know if he knows or not," admitted Bianca. "He probably has some kind of clue."

"You're sure he didn't just find out, and, you know, find a way to block it because he doesn't want to be spied on?" asked Percy. "I mean, he's a teen now, or almost, isn't he? No man likes the idea of a female member of their family being able to look in on them at any random time."

"He's not a man, he's a little boy," argued Bianca. "And I think something's wrong with him. You can't just shield yourself so completely like that, not without tremendous power to work with. It would take someone as strong as a Titan, or one of the Big Three to work that kind of block, not one of the Big Three's twelve-year-old sons."

"Um . . . uh . . ."

"You know something," realized Bianca.

"What?" asked Percy. "Me?"

"You've seen him more than once over the past month."

"Well, we are at Camp Half-Blood . . ." said Percy weakly.

"Before that," said Bianca. "You've seen him more than that."

Percy shrugged. "He comes over for Sunday dinners sometimes. We caught a movie a couple weeks ago, and went to a party one of my friends from school invited me to last week. Rachel was there too."

"A boy-girl party?" asked Bianca, momentarily distracted. "Percy, he's too young for that!"

"He's twelve or thirteen. We're not sure, since he doesn't know when his birthday was, but -"

"That's too young. Please tell me there wasn't any drinking or drugs or making out in closets going on," pleaded Bianca.

Percy slapped his palm to his face and muttered, "I can't believe I'm having this conversation."

"This is serious, Percy!"

"Bianca," said Percy, "Nico is fine. He's growing up. That's what people do. Er . . . I mean, people who don't . . . er . . . find some way around aging . . ."

Bianca shelved that issue for the moment. "But you know something about what's happening to him."

"Um . . ." Percy looked extremely uncomfortable. "Look, I'm sorry, but I'm not . . . this isn't . . . Look, I'll ask Chiron to give him the talk, because I'm not cut out for that."

"The talk? What talk?" demanded Bianca.

Percy blinked at her then blushed. "Never mind. I think I misunderstood you."

"Percy, I'm worried about him," emphasized Bianca. "Something has happened to him. You don't just get powerful enough to block out everyone who might be looking in on you in a week, but that's what happened to him. You know something about what happened, don't you?"

The answer was written all over Percy's face.

"Percy, what happened to him?" demanded Bianca. "Is he okay?"

"He's fine," Percy told her. "There's nothing wrong with him."

"What happened then?"

Percy shook his head.

"Please, tell me."

"I promise you that he is okay, and that I'm doing my best to keep an eye on him," said Percy. "But I promised him that I wouldn't tell anyone about . . . about the stuff I promised I wouldn't tell anyone about. Not unless I had to."

"Percy, whatever it is, it's dangerous," insisted Bianca. "That much power . . . him fooling around with it -"

"He's not fooling around," said Percy. "He's doing the best he can and being as responsible as he can, and if you knew . . ." He shook his head looking frustrated.

"Tell me so I do know then."

"And betray his trust?" asked Percy. "He doesn't trust many people anymore, because everyone he used to trust let him down."

That stung and Bianca couldn't think of anything to say to it.

"But if you knew . . . you'd be proud of him. I'd be proud of him if he was my little brother." The look Percy gave Bianca wasn't accusing, but Bianca felt its bite just the same. "He's a good kid."

"Percy?" A painfully familiar voice came from the direction of the door. Almost immediately, the Iris Message connection grew fuzzy, like distortions underwater. "Are you still awake? I'd meant to ask you -"

Bianca shifted anxiously, trying to get a better angle and maybe see the door as footsteps sounded across the cabin's threshold, but the connection sputtered and died before Nico came into view. Bianca gave a cry of frustration and stared into the black.

She'd never realized how much she missed seeing her little brother's face until suddenly realizing that she couldn't see him anymore. But she wasn't ready to give up yet. Percy had been her best bet, the person she thought that she could depend on the most. And she still could depend on him, she knew. He would do his best to look after Nico, because that's just how Percy was. But Bianca needed to know what was going on.

"Oh Goddess of the Rainbow, I need to make another collect call. This time to Thalia Grace."

---------------------------------------------

"She's been spying on me?" Nico was mad.

"Looking out for you is how she put it," said Percy carefully.

"Which is just another way of saying spying," said Nico.

Her intentions were good, said Anubis, inside of Nico's head. The Egyptian death god who had unintentionally possessed him had been keeping the amount of consciousness and power he put into his host at a minimum while they were in camp, but Nico's anger had caught his attention.

Everyone knows where good intentions get you, said Nico to the god. Oh wait, she's already there. Besides, she gave up any rights to telling me what to do when she abandoned me. It's none of her business if I'm going to boy-girl parties!

I find the amount of importance placed on these boy-girl parties laughable, commented Anubis.

She doesn't have the right to spy on me. Thanks for putting a stop to all that by the way. That was your doing, wasn't it? Nico asked.

Anubis sent the mental equivalent of a nod through their connection. Not intentionally. I didn't mean to shield you from your father either, but that happened as well. I assume your sister ran into the same wall that he did.

Nico relayed this information to Percy, who nodded.

"I figured as much," said Percy.

Nico sighed and sat down on one of the deck chairs that were in the Poseidon Cabin and glanced toward the goldfish bowls of glowing underwater plants. It was much homier than the Hades Cabin. Nico liked his cabin better, but knew that being in his cabin put Percy on edge, so he'd come here to talk to him now that the day was over and they had a chance to talk without having to worry about other people listening in on them. And there was always a lot to talk about. The Egyptian stuff, which Nico was still sorting out, of course, but other stuff too. Like when Alexa Milton from Percy's high school was having another party, and whether or not Aunt Sally and Paul would let Percy go to beach week when school let out before he came back to Camp Half-Blood when summer started.

The Egyptian stuff was a bit more serious. Percy had been very worried that the camp's defenses might not even let Nico back in, but Nico had gotten through without a hitch. They figured that was probably because campers could grant permission for monsters to cross the camp's borders, like Annabeth had with Tyson once, or summon them, like Luke did to the hellhound the first week Percy was at camp. Nico was a demigod, even if he did have an Egyptian god stuck in his skull, so the camp's borders probably took it as unspoken consent that Anubis was allowed inside the camp, since he'd already been allowed inside Nico's head.

"Are you alright?" asked Percy after Nico had sat in silence for awhile.

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Nico. "I'm dealing the best I can with everything. Compared to a lot of the stuff from the past month, finding out that my dead sister is spying on me isn't that big."

"Annabeth knows something's up."

"How so?"

"She thinks we've been acting suspiciously," said Percy. "She knows I'm keeping something from her. I haven't told her anything, and I'm not going to unless it's an emergency, but she's . . . not happy about it."

Nico nodded. "What should we do?"

"Maybe put all speculation about this Egyptian stuff on hold until spring break ends?" suggested Percy. "I think we must look suspicious, and like we don't want anyone overhearing us when we talk about that because . . . well, because that's what Annabeth told me."

Nico nodded again. "We can do that. There's not much more to discuss anyway. I think I already told you everything that's happened."

"Yeah." Percy yawned, which Nico took as a sign that it was time to go.

"I'm off for the night, then," he said. "And I won't forget. No more talking about Egypt stuff at camp from here on out."

"Unless it's an emergency," added Percy hastily.

"Unless it's an emergency," agreed Nico. "But I doubt we'll have any of those. At least not this week."