Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

To say today was tiring would be an understatement. Annabeth, Luke, and I couldn’t go anywhere without being bombarded with questions about our current situation. Everyone had left the di Angelo’s alone, probably because they were children of Hades, but Bianca seemed to take this as a good thing, since she’d taken to shielding Nico from anyone who passed them, despite his complaints. If it was socially acceptable to hiss at people, I think she would.

When I sat down at my table for dinner, I fully expected to get some peace and quiet. Naturally, my friends had other ideas.

Seemingly the moment I sat down, Annabeth rose from her seat at her table, Luke and the di Angelo’s also getting up from the Hermes table.

They all sat down at my table with their food. Luke slammed his head on the table. “The Stoll’s are driving me nuts.” He grumbled.

Annabeth kissed my cheek, then reached over the table to pat Luke’s head. “Serves you right.”

Luke raised his head and glared at her. “They keep asking so many questions. I’m pretty sure they don’t even want answers anymore, they just want to annoy me.”

I nodded. “Sounds like the Stoll’s.”

“I hope whatever you’re talking about is important enough to break the rules.”

I looked up to see Chiron looking down at us, arms crossed.

“We’re just going over what we should do,” Bianca said.

“Yeah!” Nico piped up around a mouthful of chips from his place on his sister’s lap.

“We’d feel a lot better if we had a clear plan,” Annabeth said.

Chiron nodded. “Very well.” He said, then trotted off.

Luke shivered. “Still don’t feel good around him.”

“I don’t blame you,” I said.

“So, let me go over this again, because I’m still a little confused- Nico chew,” Bianca said.

“Shoot.”

“So, you four and Apollo all got sent back in time to before he started a war.” She said, jabbing a thumb at Luke.

The man in question looked very caught off guard, having just taken a bite out of his burger.

Annabeth stifled a laugh and I nodded.

“And Apollo- Nico I said chew- Apollo, who was turned mortal, shouted at Zeus to get what he wanted, so now the Ancient Laws are gone and he’s going to try and save his friend from a trio of evil emperors- Nico there are bones in your mouth, use them!” She shouted.

“Sorry.” Nico chimed, mouth full and not sounding very sorry.

Bianca rolled her eyes. “Anyway, while Apollo’s doing that, Percy, Annabeth, and Nico are going to go and find a fleece that’ll bring back Thalia, who is the daughter of Zeus and also a tree.”

“That’s pretty much it,” Annabeth answered.

Luke cleared his throat. “I’m guessing you guys want me to start training Bianca while you’re gone?”

I looked at Annabeth. “Yeah, I guess. Maybe try her with a bow and arrow first.”

Nico tensed in his sister’s lap.

“Nico?” Bianca asked, concern written all over her face.

Nico swallowed. “I want to go to the Underworld first, get a sword.”

Bianca furrowed her brow. “But there’s loads of swords here.”

“I want a Stygian Iron one, I feel more confident with it. Plus, I want to talk to Hades about Ha- something.”

I felt terrible. In all of the confusion, I forgot Hazel was still dead. The camp didn’t even know about the Roman’s, Leo was bouncing around foster homes, Piper was in California, Frank was in Canada, Jason wasn’t even Praetor yet. Wait a minute.

Judging by her face, Annabeth had had the same thought. She fished around in her pocket, bringing out some ambrosia and wrapped it in a napkin before giving it to Nico. “You be careful, ok?”

Nico took the ambrosia from Annabeth and nodded, tuned to hug Bianca, kissed her cheek, then stuffed a handful of chips into his mouth before ducking under the table and disappearing into the shadows.

It had been years, but it still reassured me to see Nico eat so much. Over time, he’d started to gain more weight, and his skin had regained the healthy, olive tone he’d started out with. Whenever I thought back or saw a picture, I couldn’t fully believe that he was once deathly pale and so skinny you could see his ribs.

“Nico!” Bianca looked under the table for him, coming up with a panicked look on her face.

Annabeth reached over and put a hand on hers. “He’ll be fine, he’s gone to the Underworld hundreds of times, he knows what he’s doing.”

Bianca didn’t look very reassured, but she nodded anyway.

Luke furrowed his brow. “Percy? Are you alright?”

My realisation must have hit me harder than I thought. “Jason.”

“Who?”

“He’s Thalia’s brother.”

Luke blinked in surprise. “She has a brother?”

“He’s Roman, son of Jupiter. His mom is also Thalia’s mom, so they’re full siblings. Their mom gave him to the wolf goddess Lupa for training when he was two. Thalia thought he was dead.”

Luke’s eyes widened. “And he’s ok?”

I nodded. “He should be. He helped Apollo on his trials, but he was killed by Caligula, but if we’re back in time then that means…” I couldn’t bring myself to finish.

“And he hasn’t seen Thalia since he was two?”

Annabeth shook her head. “We need to go to Camp Jupiter. We were kept in the bark about each other and you saw how that turned out.” She said to me.

“We’ll talk to Chiron about it,” Luke suggested. “Maybe Bianca and I could go?”

“Yeah, ok.” I snapped my head around to Annabeth. “We need to find Reyna and her sister.”

Shit.” Annabeth muttered. “Ok, yeah. We get the fleece and Reyna, Luke and Bianca find Camp Jupiter and Jason, we bring Thalia back, reunite the Grace’s, and avoid two wars while we’re at it.”

“Reyna?” Luke asked.

“Another Roman. She’s on Circe’s island right now, which is on the way to Polyphemus’ island. She’s fine where she is, but I doubt Nico would appreciate us leaving her.”

“Why not?” Bianca asked.

I waved my hands about. “They’ve got this whole sibling relationship going on, dragging the Athena Parthenos across the world will do that.”

Annabeth groaned and slammed her head onto the table. “Do not mention that damned statue.”

I looked at her, confused, then up at the crest of the hill. No statue. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.” She snapped her head up and glared at me.

I patted her back. “We can worry about that later, right now, I think we should get some rest.”

The others mumbled their agreements, all of us getting up and following the steadily growing stream of campers heading back to their cabins.

I held Annabeth’s hand, all the way back to her cabin, where I kissed her and hugged her close. “I love you,” I whispered into her ear.

“I love you too, Seaweed Brain.” She mumbled into my shoulder. She pulled away and went into her cabin, closing the door behind her.

I sighed and went to my cabin, throwing myself onto the nearest bunk. There were so many things to do, so many people we had to save. Thalia, Reyna, Jason, Hazel, and so many more. But if we do this, and we do it right, things will turn out miles better than they had before, and that seemed like a pretty good deal to me.

I rolled over and closed my eyes. Assuming Nico came back on time, we had one hell of a day tomorrow.

Chapter Text

I sucked in a deep breath as the shadows surrounded me, voices beckoning me further in. I steeled myself and blocked out the noise. I am the son of Hades, the Ghost King, I control the shadows, they will never control me.

I clenched my fists and pushed through.

I stumbled out onto a riverbed. The air was cold, the sand was black, there was little to no light. I was standing at the River Styx.

I leaned back on a rock jutting out of the sand and took out the ambrosia Annabeth gave me and nibbled at the corner. I immediately felt the strength returning to my muscles and I started off towards my father’s palace.

As I neared the gates to Asphodel, I saw Charon docking his boat. Once I got a bit closer, I called out to him in my most authoritative voice.

He turned, looking startled. “Just who are you? How did you get down here?”

I pulled myself up to my full height which, at the moment, wasn’t all that impressive. Stupid pre-pubescent body. “I am Nico di Angelo. I’m here to see my father.”

Charon looked unimpressed, like scrawny ten-year-olds who looked like they came straight from a vintage movie often came strolling into the Underworld, demanding to see their dad. “Look kid, I know it sucks, but your dad’s dead and he ain’t coming back. Now scram before I stick a couple hellhounds on you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think you understand.” I held my hand out towards the spirits getting off the boat. They all froze in place. “I’m here to see my father,” I repeated.

Realisation flickered across his face, quickly being replaced by a sort of fear mixed with respect. “Of course, sir. I deeply apologise, I’ll take you to him now.”

Of course, I could always go alone, I knew my way, but I simply just didn’t feel like dealing with security after I set off the life detectors. Having Charon deal with the, was just a whole lot easier.

As we drew closer to the gates of Asphodel, Cerberus started to become clearer and clearer, until he was growling right in my face. I held my hands up in front of me. “Easy boy.”

The middle head bent down to sniff at me, left and right continuing to growl. He sniffed me a few times then, probably after figuring out who my father was, barked happily.

All three heads tried to nuzzle me simultaneously and, I have to admit, it was kinda funny seeing all three heads bumping into each other. Persephone had taken me out here one night while she was a little tipsy and explained how she’d taken to calling the left head Cer, the middle head Ber and the right head Us, and how she’d even gotten my father to do it too. Immediately after, she’s started crying because she didn’t have enough hands to pet all three heads at once.

I laughed fondly at the memory. We may have started out with a bit of a rocky relationship, but after a while, we’d really started to get along.

“Down boy!” Charon called and continued to lead me to the gates.

Once I’d passed through the gates and Charon had taken care of security, earning me a few bows and “your highness”s, I turned to him. “You can leave now; I know where I’m going.”

Charon bowed. “Of course, sir.” He then turned and walked briskly back to his boat.

I made my way through Asphodel, sticking to the poplar trees, looking for any sign of my sister.

I was almost at the palace now, still no Hazel, when I finally spotted her. She was I the exact same position as when I’d found her the first time, sat at the base of a tree, knees pulled up to her chest.

“Hazel!” I exclaimed in relief, running towards her.

She looked up at me, the tired and defeated look in her eyes breaking my heart. “Who are you?”

I crouched down in front of her. “I’m Nico, son of Hades. I’m your brother.”

She furrowed her brow. “But I thought my father’s name was Pluto?”

“It is, that’s just the name of his Roman form, I was born while he was in his Greek form. It’s complicated, I know, I’ll explain it later, but right now I need to get you out of here.” I held my hand out to her.

Hazel looked suspiciously between my face and my hand, before finally sucking in a breath and taking my hand.

I helped pull her to her feet then, still holding her hand, continued on to the palace of our father.

As we neared the gates, Hazel moved closer to me. I squeezed her hand. The gates can be scary, seeing them for the first time. I thrust my hand out and they swung open.

Persephone’s garden was always beautiful, no matter if she was actually here or not. She would take Hazel and me out here to try and teach us some gardening techniques. I had struggled with it, but Hazel had taken to it like a duck to water, even starting her own mini garden on a windowsill in the apartment she shared with Frank.

I thrust my hand out again, causing the doors to the throne room to swing inwards. If all my time with my father taught me anything, it was how to make an entrance.

I squeezed Hazel’s hand again, and pulled her into the room with me, coming face to face with our father.

Hades sighed when he saw us. “I assume this has something to do with that mess Apollo is a part of?”

“How could you tell?” I asked nonchalantly, inwardly wincing as Hazel tightened her grip on my hand. Whether she was angry or scared, I couldn’t quite tell.

“Well for one, you and Bianca are meant to be in the Lotus Hotel. For two,” he looked at Hazel. “You know about her.”

“Well, you’d be right. I’m here to ask for two things, both well within the realm of possibility.”

Hades straightened on his throne. “Continue.”

I stepped forward. “I would like a sword. You gave it to me before and I need it for my quest.”

Hades exhaled through his nose. “Very well.” He said, waving over a guard. “Fetch my son a blade of Stygian Iron.”

The guard saluted and left.

My father turned to me. “What else, child?”

I pulled Hazel forward. “I would like you to turn a blind eye as I lead Hazel out of here.”

His hands clenched the arms of his throne and his eyes narrowed. “Is that so?”

I shrugged. “You did it before, you can do it again.”

“You’d better not be lying to me, boy.”

“I swear it on the Styx, I am telling you nothing but the truth.”

Hades stared at me. I kept eye contact. I had stopped being afraid of him long ago, so this little stare down wasn’t much a challenge.

He sighed. “Fine. You may lead Hazel back to the mortal world.”

I bowed my head. “Thank you, father.”

The guard came back into the room and handed me my sword.

“Do not get used to this child. I don’t do favours for mortals, much less heed their demands. Not even my own children.”

I thought back to how quickly he had volunteered to take me when I told him I had to get braces. “Of course, father. Thank you again.” I turned and left, semi-dragging a stunned Hazel behind me.

When we got to the surface, I left Hazel in the care of Lupa with the promise that I’d visit her regularly, and I’d take her and Bianca somewhere nice so we could all bond, then found a clothing store and changed out of my quite itchy outfit.

It was around late morning when I made it back to camp, dress in my usual black jeans, skull top, and aviator jacket. Whether or not these were acquired legally isn’t important.

I made my way down to the beach, idly swinging my sword as I walked. “Hey, guys!”

Bianca turned around, smiling when she saw me, but her expression soon morphed into fear. “Nico! Don’t swing that like that, you’ll get hurt!” She yelled, sprinting over to me.

“I’m fine, I know what I’m doing.” I protested, laying my sword across my shoulder.

“Nico.” She said, crossing her arms.

“Sorry,” I said, sheathing my sword.

She looked me up and down. “Just what are you wearing?”

“Clothes,” I answered, walking over to the rest of the group standing on the sand.

Percy smiled when he saw me properly. “Hey! You look like yourself again!”

I laughed. “Everything was a success. I got my sword; Hazel is alive and with Lupa and I am ready to go.” I yawned “Ok, maybe I’m ready to take a nap, but I’m ready nonetheless.”

“That’s good,” Luke said, folding up a piece of paper and putting it in his pocket. “Annabeth drew a map to Camp Jupiter, so Bianca, Silena and I are about to leave, we just wanted to come see you off.”

“Silena?”

“So she can charmspeak if necessary,” Percy explained, twirling a pen over his knuckles. “You’re ready, Luke’s ready, I got Riptide back so I’m ready, Annabeth managed to get her mom to give her her cap so she’s ready, and Bianca still hasn’t got a clue what’s going on, but she’s got spirit so she’d ready too.”

I looked over at Bianca who just shrugged. “Go team.” She said.

Luke shook his head with a smile. “Well, we’d better get going.” He said, patting Bianca’s shoulder. “Good luck!” He called, jogging off with my sister.

Percy turned to me and Annabeth. “All aboard!” He held his hands out towards the water. “It’s no Argo II, but it’s better than that dingy Camp Jupiter gave me, Hazel and Frank.”

Annabeth made her way up the ramp leading to the deck. “I’m captain.” She called casually.

Percy’s draw dropped. “But it’s my ship!” He yelled, sprinting up after his wife.

I rolled my eyes and climbed up after them. They were busy bickering like the married couple they were, so I opted to go below deck and find a cabin to pass out in.

Once I found one I deemed fit to use, I threw my sword and jacket onto a chair in the corner and threw myself onto the bed, passing out immediately.

Chapter Text

Bianca and I walked in silence to the top of Half-Blood hill. It was probably meant to be a comfortable silence, but I just couldn’t seem to relax. I kept expecting someone to jump out and yell ‘Thant’s the guy who gave his body to Kronos and tried to overthrow the gods!’ and drive me out of Camp. I just couldn’t shake the paranoia and guilt that came I saw anyone who had suffered because of what I did. The sooner we got on the road, the better.

Silena was waiting at the top of the hill, fiddling with her braid as she spoke to Beckendorf, who was helping to load the rest of our stuff into the van. I stuffed away all my guilt and put on my mask that I’d spent the past few days perfecting. Showtime.

“What’s up, Lovebirds?”  I yelled as I got closer.

Silena squeaked and started blushing furiously, while Beckendorf almost dropped what he was holding, turning his face away, presumably to hide his own blush. “Not funny, Castellan.”

“Yeah, it is.” I replied. “Where’s the keys?”

Silena started digging in her pockets. “Right here.” She said, handing them to me.

Beckendorf looked over to me in mock surprise. “You were serious? You’re not stealing a car? Aren’t you a Hermes kid?” He narrowed his eyes. “Are you really Luke?”

I laughed. “I wanted to hot wire something when we got into the city, preferably something expensive, but Chiron and Silena shut that down pretty quickly.”

“Because it’s unethical!” Silena yelled.

“My dad’s Hermes!” I yelled back.

Beckendorf shook his head. “Just try and keep your sticky fingers at bay unless absolutely necessary.” He stepped back from the van. “That’s the last bit, you guys are good to go.”

“Thanks, Charles.” Silena said, a dorky grin plastered on her face.

Beckendorf started wringing his hands. “It wasn’t a problem; I didn’t really have anything to do and I like helping you, uh others, everyone, I like helping everyone, not just you.” Gods, I just wanted to slam their heads together and make them kiss, just to put them out of their lovesick misery.

Bianca furrowed her brow. “But when I came to get you, you said you were too busy?”

“Bet his story changed the moment you said Silena was there, huh?” I mumbled.

Beckendorf glared at me. “That’s not- I was just exaggerating.”

I laughed. “Gods, Beckendorf, just go, I can tell you want to.”

Beckendorf smiled at Silena again before bolting back down the hill

I twirled the keys around on my finger and patted the side of the van. “All aboard.”

Bianca crawled into the back, where Silena had set up a pile of pillows and blankets and even hung up some fairy lights and opened one of the history books she’d gotten from cabin six.

“Um, Luke?”

I turned around. “Yeah?”

Silena wrung her hands/ “You’re from the future, right? I just wanted to ask, I mean, I was wondering, Charlie, I mean Beckendorf and I, do we ever, I mean, are we-”

I cut her off with a laugh. “Gods Silena, you’re hopeless.” I shook my head and put my hand on her shoulder, putting on the well-known ‘Big Brother Luke’ smile. “I don’t think it’s my place to say, but I’m sure that if you both want something to happen between you two, it’ll happen.”

Her face lit up. “Really?”

“Really, now get in, we got places to be.”

She got in beside Bianca, got out the portable DVD player one of my siblings had managed to smuggle into camp and loaned to questers willing to keep it a secret from Chiron, and started to rifle through her stash of romance movies.

I hopped into the driver’s seat and turned the radio on, setting it to a volume that shouldn’t disturb the girls too much, and started the van.

“I’ve figured out how long it’ll take us to get to different hotels along the way, so hopefully we’ll be sleeping in proper beds every night, but we are Half-Bloods, so there’s always a chance we’ll have to sleep in the van so be ready for that.” I said as I manoeuvred the van down the hill.

Silena huffed. “Nothing ever goes to plan for Half-Bloods.”

“Exactly.”

“Percy said I’m a big three kid, so that means I’ll attract more attention.” Bianca pointed out.

“Yes, you will, so things are definitely not gonna go as planned, but it never hurt to be optimistic.”

I looked in the rear-view mirror, double checking that we had all our weapons before we got too far away from camp to go back.

I’d tried to train Bianca as much as I could this morning, and while she was fairly decent with a sword, I could tell fighting in close quarters made her a bit anxious. However, just like Percy said, she was miles better with a bow and arrow. She seemed much more relaxed, probably because she didn’t have a sword pointed at her, and her aim was pretty good for a beginner.

Silena was alright with a sword, she could definitely get through a small attack no problem, so I wasn’t too worried about her, but I was ready to step in and protect her if need be. Besides, if push came to shove, she’d said she was more than willing to bust out a lighter and a can of hairspray to make an impromptu flame thrower.

Weapons wise, we tried to travel quite light. Silena and I both had swords of the completely celestial bronze, non-lethal to mortals kind, while Bianca had a bow and quiver with several spare arrows tucked away in the back and, at my insistence, had a dagger strapped to her leg. I knew it probably wouldn’t get much use, she was anxious enough getting close with a sword, I hated to imagine what she’d be like trying to get close enough to use a dagger, but it reassured both me and Percy to know that she had something to defend herself with if she couldn’t get far enough away to use her bow.

Silena tapped Bianca’s arm. “Forgot to ask, you good if your period comes?”

I took this as my cue to turn up the music and stare at the road.

Bianca spluttered a bit. “I, uh, what?” Her voice came out strained.

Silena didn’t back down. “Have you even got your first one yet? If you haven’t, that’s fine, just tell me if you get it along the way and I’ll get Luke to steal something for you.” She reached over and turned down the radio. “And you stop being so awkward, if I didn’t want you to hear, I would have whispered. It’s a natural, bodily function, I’ve heard you and several other boys at camp talking about stuff like farts, so why can’t girls talk about periods?”

I cleared my throat. “Sorry, I’ve just always been told it’s none of my business. Also, why are you so pick and chose with what I steal?”

“One, it is none of your business, girls should just be able to talk about periods without boys squirming and two, sanitary products should be free like many other things.”

I nodded. “Makes sense.” I looked at Bianca in the rear-view mirror and chuckled when I saw just how red her face was. “I think you broke her.”

Silena looked at Bianca, then looked back to me. “So, anyway, did you have a girlfriend in the future?” She asked, changing the subject and giving Bianca time to recover.

I choked. “I, uh.”

Silena grinned wickedly. “Ooh, you did!”

“I didn’t!” I yelled frantically. “I don’t even, I mean, no.”

Silena didn’t back down. “You sure? No one at all?”

I took a deep breath. “There was a boy,” I said, looking in the mirror for her reaction. “But nothing ever happened between us.”

Well Silena, I thought, we couldn’t get together because I was much too busy having my body taken over by the evil titan lord of time. “It’s complicated.”

Silena didn’t look too satisfied by that answer but she, thankfully, didn’t push.

Bianca cleared her throat awkwardly. “A boy?”

Silena’s eyes lit up and she dug through the bag of books Bianca had gotten from the Athena campers. “That sort of thing is handled a lot better now than back in the thirties. I mean, yeah, there’s still a long way to go, but it’s getting better.” She took out a book, flipped to a certain page and dumped it onto Bianca’s lap. “Read that.”

As the daughter of Hades read, Silena turned her attention back to me. “So, you’re gay?”

I shrugged. “Dunno. I think so, though, with everything that happened in my future, I didn’t really have time to just sit down and try to figure it out. At one point I thought I might have feelings for Thalia, but I think it was more of a sisterly thing.”

Silena patted my head. “Take your time, no one’s rushing you.”

Bianca cleared her throat, closing the book. Her eyes had a hopeful sparkle and a smile was tugging at her lips. “So, what you’re saying is, I could, um, date a girl and no one would stop me?”

“No one that matters.” Silena answered.

A giggle escaped Bianca as she played with the end of her jumper. “That’s um, that’s really good.”

Silena leaned over. “Would you like to date a girl? Because I can definitely help make that happen.”

I shook my head as Silena kept interrogating Bianca, trying to wrangle a type out of her. I turned the radio back up, trying to give them some semblance of privacy in this cramped van. Going on a road trip with a timid daughter of Hades from the thirties and an over excited daughter of Aphrodite. This is gonna be interesting.