Chapter Text
Life after the war against Gaea was good. Not great or the ‘happily ever after’ you would expect from a fairy tale. It was like going to a new restaurant and finding out the food is nice enough for going to the restaurant again but not enough to call it your favorite place.
Many people died. Everyone had lost a sister, a brother, a friend, a lover. The Underworld that was already over populated, saw itself filled with souls of both Romans and Greeks that had gave their life in the battle. And even more demigods had ended up wounded, or lost a member or two. Everyone that had fought on the war now seemed marked with blood that would never leave, and asked themselves: was it worth it?
But peace followed. Quests weren´t needed, since Evil did sleep for a while. Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-blood were now brothers in arms, connecting the country with half-bloods and making programs and paths to make themselves even stronger. A tunnel was even made, using what was left of Daedalus´ Labyrinth that crossed all United States and allowed everyone to come and go from one camp to the other. Greeks that got too old to live at the Camp could stay on New Rome, and it seemed like everyone was reaching a new Golden Era of the Olympus.
Life after the war had its downs and ups, but for Nico Di Angelo it was a complete 180 degree turn. And no the awful turn it was after Bianca died and he discovered his daddy ruled over the death. It was an amazing turn, one that would make his 13-year-old self jump in shock.
His whole world changed Nico as a war hero, worth of respect as any of 7. After Reina told everyone of his deeds in the war, they stopped treating Nico as the outcast Child of the Underworld, he was now the Heir of Hades, man that played a vital part on both wars, Kronos and Gaea, and without whom would had lost both and more would have died. He may not be the super star and legend that were Percy Jackson and the others, but he was someone you counted a lot for important decisions on both Camps. And his friends helped him get comfortable in his own skin, and showed him that his sexuality was nothing to be ashamed of. Without them, Nico would had returned to the Underworld, thing he did tried to do if Jason hadn´t tried to force him to stay on the Camp and told Hazel he was trying to leave. She just gave him her most sad puppy eyes and disappointed look, which made him promise over the Styx that he would stay, and even when he needed to leave he would Iris-message periodically. It was like if his self from before the war a completely different being from whom he was now, and he was proud of that fact.
Nico Di Angelo was now someone you would admire, someone you wished you were, and someone who would get your back anytime. And if that wasn´t good enough, he was probably the most powerful demigod alive, in the sense of control over powers. Being a son of The Big Three made him tougher than most half-bloods already, but after spending a lot of time in the Underworld working as his father´s right-hand man made him ever better.
After the War, all the deaths and sudden accumulation of souls made the Underworld unbalanced, with too much trouble and problems for Hades to fix alone. So he offered Nico a deal. Hades was the only god without a proper heir or general for his kingdom, and his son had proven himself more than worthy enough for that title more than once. Nico finally became the official Commander of the Underworld troops, and even served as a judge for a lot of the souls, since they were short on them with all the number of dead people. He would be offered Godhood once he died, since his father said there was no need to rush things since Nico could come and go now from the Underworld.
But a proper Prince of the Death would need bigger control of his powers if he was meant to become a God someday, so Hades started to teach him more of the Arts of Necromancy, Umbrakinesis, and the other magical abilities he got from being a half-blood. By the age of 17, he could do things that most other people saw as completely terrifying but impressive. And since the other Big Three Kids had no bothered to learn the darker sides of their powers, he got himself in the top of the list. This of course, tends to generate certain issues with some other Olympians that see him as a menace to the gods. Especially Zeus, who he had a mayor disagreement about a four years after the war, but the rest of Olympus managed to keep Zeus from blasting Nico out of New York. Thankfully, that calmed down after Nico was put into some kind of trial-quest-whatever that proved his loyalty to his father and the rest of the Gods.
Now, he was currently having a nice dinner consisting of real Italian food in this r nice restaurant in Venice with a wonderful view of the beauty of the city. Nico had an apartment in Italy that his father gave him as a 20-year-old birthday present. He spent most of the time when he wasn´t either working on the Underworld or visiting New Rome there. Connecting with his Italian roots had been one of the few things he had wanted to do after the war, and so far he was doing a great job. The memories from his childhood started to come to life after just spending a few days in his homeland. After standing in a certain fountain near one of the many buildings of Venice one time, the image of his mother watching over Bianca and him while they played come to life right in front of Nico´s eyes. It was one of the main reasons he always came to take a break between the rest of his life, because deep down he knew Italy was the only place that felt like a true home. Yeah, each one of his friends never ceased to tell him how both Camps always would welcome him, and his father was more than pleased each time Nico showed up to help with matters of the Death, but he still felt somehow out of place there. That didn´t happened in Venice, plus, being by his own sometimes was a good break from all the other things that being a demigod implied. Monsters could attack here and there, but it wasn´t nothing he couldn´t take care of.
This restaurant in particular was one of his favorite places of the city. An old couple ran it, and it had over forty years of serving food to Venetians and tourists. It was one of those places that made you feel like you were back in time, with the simple machines and old-fashioned decorations. Most people didn´t seem to appreciate that sort of things, but Nico did. The old lady always would try to convince Nico to eat more because he was too skinny and her husband would always say how much Nico reminded both of their own son when he was that age. Nico would just smile and keep eating.
Today was one of those days, in which the owners of the restaurants were serving people, as the new waitress was cleaning the tables. She was young, with black hair and light brown eyes that told Nico that she was the old lady´s granddaughter. The girl bit her lip and continued to eye Nico from afar. Nico just smiled and kept himself with his plate. She was pretty, but he wasn´t into woman, like, at all.
But then something changed. A faint void invaded him completely, he felt like if something was sucked out of him as a ringing sounded in his ears. He knew this sensation. It made his heart sink. Nico stood up abruptly, making the waitress and some of the other customers jump. Nico slid his aviator jacket back on, mumbled a quick ‘scusate’ to them, and ran out of the restaurant. He was only around the corner when he felt the shadows shallow him, and his stygian iron sword appearing in his hands.
Part of becoming better with his powers was that Nico could feel someone´s soul, even from across the world, being able to track them or at least kind of knowing where they were located. He ran normal ‘check ups’ with the souls of people he cared for. This made him able to know if they were alright or not, but also kind made him even more sensitive to spirits and souls, if that was even possible. And Nico knew exactly how it felt when someone´s soul was fading, dying. It made him shudder at the simple thought, but the ability had been proven useful more than once. That didn´t made it any easier to bear with, though. Not like anyone would find the sensation nice.
As he felt a particular soul banishing, a low and dark twinge happened in his stomach as his mouth became dry.
When Nico jumped out of the shadows, with sword in hand, he felt more tired than he did when he left the restaurant. Nico wasn´t sure where he had traveled, but it was pretty far. He tried to catch an eye of his surroundings quickly, but a huge scream filled his ears and his head jerked back. Nico´s eyes widened, and he jumped out of pure instinct as the flames came into his way. Nico rolled to the ground, dirt covering his jacket as he raised himself again. And the first thing he saw was blood. Somebody was lying on the ground, with a girl holding a sword in front of her, trying hard to protect her fallen companion. And then Nico felt his whole world crashing down for a moment.
The somebody was Percy Jackson.
Before Nico could snap out of the shock, more flames went into his way. He dodged them again, and then he finally saw the drakon in front of him. Black scales, and blood-thirsty eyes. A fury he hadn´t felt in a long time invaded Nico, and he raised his sword in a battle cry and urged forward to the beast. The girl next to Percy was paralyzed for a second. Nico jumped, evading the flames and claws of the monster, and attacked, shoving his sword into the drakon´s leg. It hisses, and pushed Nico out of balance with its tail. It pounced toward Nico, but he rolled away. The beast didn´t gave out, and Nico just kept using his sword to attack and defend. Fire was shot again, this time toward the Girl and Percy. Nico growled, and tried to push the monster away from them, but the fire ended up hitting his leg. Nico cried in pain, and fell to the dirt again.
The Ghost King knew he had to act fast, he could feel Percy´s soul leaving his body. Nico tried to draw the drakon far from the girl and Percy, and before it could assault again, Nico opened a creak on the ground, concentrating on the Earth to move as quick as possible. The drakon fell, and Nico stood up, limping toward the girl, firmly holding Percy´s arm, with Riptide in her hand for some reason. The pain in his leg was intensifying, and even if Nico didn´t want to accept it, it had been a since he last was into a serious fight. Before Nico could think it better, he grabbed the girl´s shoulder and Percy´s hand, slipping into the nearest shadow again.
They were now dropped into the entrance of Camp Half-blood, right next to Thalia´s tree. Nico crawled closer, and he finally saw Percy´s wound. His shoulder was burnt and deep claws in his chest. He was losing too much blood. The girl next to him was white with panic, and looked traumatized for life. Nico turned around, and shouted for someone to come, as he felt himself filling with despair. A couple of kids dropped the weapons they were holding, and sprinted into the Camp. And then Percy´s eyes opened just a bit. Nico grabbed the hero´s hand, and the other one squeezed it. Nico called out for someone even louder. He was feeling Percy´s soul leaving. His own clothes started to get soaked on blood, but he couldn´t cared. His mind was back on another time, in the days of the war, when he had to see his friends just like this, and felt even more of their deaths and last breaths. Nico might be crying at the moment, because the help just didn´t hurried enough, and he could only repeat was please Percy, please, just hold on, hold on…
When the Apollo kids finally came, as they carried Percy away into the infirmary, Nico was a mess. They took the Ghost King with them too. Nico was still in shock, still felt so numb. They tried to make him drink nectar, but the only thing that he saw, was his hands covered in blood, and he remember the first time they were like this. Nico plead to the Gods that it would be the last time.
Nico didn´t move from the Infirmary for a long time, even after they told him he was ready to. They also told him that Percy was recovering, even if he still didn´t woke up. He had lost too much blood; people with the same blood kind had to donate. Nico was still worried, as was most of the Camp. Even Mr. D seemed somehow preoccupied. What did surprised Nico, was the fact that Percy was alone at the Camp. One or two of their friends usually stayed with him, taking care of the younger campers or just teaching swordplay or other things. It was usually Jason, but he was in New Rome, fixing some problems in with the praetors. Most of the seven were in New Rome too actually, studying college and trying to live normal lives even if they were demigods. Leo was the only one aside from Percy that stayed at Long Island full-time, but he was off to his annual quest with Calypso, exploring the world and enjoying the Argo II for themselves. Nico used to stay and help Percy around a lot too, but he stopped a few months ago for some reasons.
That only makes him feel even guiltier. He hadn´t talked to Percy or been in the Camp for almost five months, and it scared him to think that the Son of Poseidon could have died then and there. He sat against one of the walls of the infirmary, with knees pressed with his body. He hadn´t felt this bad since he was still a kid.
He heard soft hoof steps, and raised his head slightly. Chiron was standing there, besides Percy´s bed. The centaur glanced at Nico for a second, before trotting toward him.
“Don´t beat yourself off because of this, Mr. Di Angelo.” Chiron said. “He would have been worse if you hadn´t arrived.”
“I didn´t arrived fast enough.” Nico mutters. “He was fighting a drakon. By himself. He shouldn´t have been alone in a quest in the first place if he knew he was facing a drakon. He could have asked me to go with him or someone else instead of trying to be the hero and ending up-”
“Percy wasn´t exactly on a real quest.” Chiron interrupted him softly. “He was just helping transport a young demigod to the Camp. If we had known there would be monsters like that, we would have sent more people.”
“That´s why that girl was with him?”
Chiron nodded. “Ms. Espey is distressed at the moment. It was just a week ago when her protector attempted to bring her at the camp, but there were a few complications.”
Nico raised an eyebrow. “What kind of complications?”
Chiron sighs. “She is a child of a Big Three.”
Nico freezed for a second. A quick thought that she might be his sister crossed his mind, but that was not probable. He would have felt it when he saw her for the first time. “A child of the Big Three? And why did Percy went alone?!”
“…We didn´t exactly know she was until the Drakon attacked….” Nico groaned in frustration. His head turned at Percy, lying unconscious on the bed. His anger shifted back to sadness. Chiron seemed to notice. “Percy, he sensed that she was one of the Big Three… The whole Camp has expected to find another one since-”
“Since Taylor was found, I know. I helped locate her, and so did Jackson. She is in Camp Jupiter, though. What was Percy expecting, his own little sibling?”
“Actually, he kind of was.”
Of course.
“And is she?” Nico asked.
“We are still not sure. But judging by the way her eyes are the same sea green, she is probably.”
Nico touched his forehead. What the world needs is another Sea-weed brain. And obviously Percy would risk his life for his sister, even if he wasn´t sure she was for real. Nico felt like laughing, because even after so long, Jackson´s fatal flaw was still the same.
“The Gods promised to claim all their children, and they do in the first week usually.” Chiron assured him.
“Do we want another small Percy Jackson running around the camp? Especially if they have the original one as their mentor?”
Chiron smiles at him. “Probably not your father´s biggest dream, but I think she will do just fine…”
“How old is the girl, Espey?”
“Her name is Cheyenne, actually. She is barely 11 years old.” Chiron replied. “The Stoll Twins are taking care of her right now. After she passes out from the shock, they will give her the tour.”
“Perfect. It seems the new generation of Half-bloods is up.” Nico commented, more to himself. “I am happy that it´s just Jason and Percy having to deal with small sisters. I can´t imagine me having to mentor a small Hades kid, to be honest.”
Chiron looked genuinely surprised at this. It made something in Nico twist uncomfortably. “Don´t you know?”
“Know what, exactly?”
“The reason Percy wanted his own small sibling was because Poseidon is the only god of the Big Three to not have any other living child.”
Nico heart stopped, again. “Are you saying that…?”
Chiron smiles even wider. “Yes. You have your own little siblings, Mr. Di Angelo.”