Author Note: Well, I started writing this in early September, before 'Blood of Olympus' came out, and by the time I'd finally read BoO I was far too deep into this fic to rewrite some of the plot points to make it compliant. As a result, it doesn't line up with all the events of BoO. So this is a slight divergence story, which follows canon up through HoH but then veers off on the premise (spoilers for BoO here, stop reading this note if you don't want to see them) that Nico didn't confess to Percy after the war, get to know Will Solace, and stay at camp but instead took off alone like he'd originally planned. Also he still has his jacket. Anything that happened in BoO that isn't directly contradicted by what I've written you can assume still happened.
He must have taken a wrong turn somewhere in the Nether. The hair on Nico's arms stood on end as he stepped out of the shadows. Something was wrong.
Something was very very wrong.
It didn't take very long to figure out what. It's kind of hard to miss an entire camp disappearing.
Nico rubbed his eyes and peered at the empty hill, wondering if somehow the Mist was affecting him, and he simply couldn't see Camp Half-Blood.
But no. Nico tested out his powers, effortlessly drawing scattered bones up from the ground and casually reanimating them. He could see that just fine. It wasn't the Mist.
Camp Half-Blood was simply gone.
Thalia's tree was still there. But it was, just as far as Nico could tell, a completely ordinary tree. He ran his fingers over the bark, trying to feel for some sort of echo of Thalia or any of the other campers. The bark began to flake off in brittle fragments where his fingers touched and Nico abruptly pulled away, not wanting to hurt it. His fingers were sticky with resinous sap and he tried in futility to wipe it off on his jeans.
It was easier to focus on the inconvenience of having sticky hands than the building panic of where did Camp Half-Blood go.
Trying to remain calm Nico took a steadying breath and reached out with his powers, looking for a trace of the other demigods.
It's not like he especially wanted to see any of them or anything, he told himself. He just needed to solve this mystery and verify they were all alive.
Percy was easy to find. He wasn't far away, probably in Manhattan. Annabeth was there too. Jason was not much removed from them, somewhere in Brooklyn maybe. Piper, Hazel and Frank were on the West Coast. Leo? Nico couldn't find Leo. But then, he didn't really expect to.
Okay. So everyone who ought to be was alive. That's all that mattered. Nothing more to see here folks. Nico could go on with his business, who cared if Camp Half-Blood had dissolved into nothingness?
He didn't care, he was just curious. Yeah, that was all. He'd get on his way just as soon as he found out what happened.
Not because he cared. The information simply might be important. That was all.
It definitely wasn't because he was worried about his displaced (but not dead) acquaintances. Nope.
It would have been easier to go to Manhattan via the shadows, but Nico didn't entirely trust them just now. He couldn't shake the suspicion that they somehow had something to do with the wrongness of his current surroundings. So Nico walked until he could find some public transportation and then managed to slink onto a bus without bothering to pay the fare. He was really good at not being noticed by people and used that to his advantage.
His trace on Percy led him unsurprisingly to Percy's mom's apartment.
He ignored that familiar knot of nervousness that formed as he prepared to face his friend and former crush. He hadn't seen Percy in a long time. He'd been avoiding everyone since the last war ended and hadn't intended to ever rescind on his vow to stay away. He really shouldn't even be doing this now but...well. The sense of off-ness that nagged at him was too strong to ignore. He just wouldn't stay long after checking, that's all.
Nico wasn't quite sure what kind of reaction he expected when the door to the apartment flung open but it definitely wasn't Percy's wide-eyed exclamation of, "Dude, why do you have a sword?"
He wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. "I always have a sword," he said cautiously.
Percy looked at him as if he'd grown a second head. "Is this some sort of prank?"
"No," said Nico.
"You're in one of my classes, right?" asked Percy, brow furrowing. "Nick or something? You definitely don't usually have a sword. That would never get through the school security. You're not here to like, rob us or something, are you?"
The suspicion in Percy's voice was alarming. But not half as alarming as the revelation that Percy didn't know him.
What. Was. Going. On.
Nico hadn't let himself be scared until this point. He was pretty freaked now though. He searched Percy's face for some sort of hint that maybe he was messing around. There was no recognition there.
"You think my name is Nick?" he asked, slightly hurt.
"Isn't it?" asked Percy, still suspiciously eyeing Nico's sword.
"No," said Nico. "It's Nico. No one calls me 'Nick'." He unconsciously made a face as he said the undesired nickname.
"Huh," said Percy, shrugging. "I could of sworn that's what the teacher called you. Eh, oh well. What'd you want?" He was regarding Nico as if he might attack him any moment.
"To talk to you? Can I..." Nico tried to look past Percy in the door and see if anyone else was home. "...Can I come in?"
Perhaps it was Nico's obvious nervousness but Percy seemed to be letting his guard down marginally. He clearly still didn't trust him though. "No," said Percy, frowning. "But we can go talk at a coffee shop or something if you want."
That kind of hurt a little, but Nico didn't blame him. If Percy really didn't know him it would have been pretty idiotic of him to invite a stranger with a sword into his apartment. Taking him somewhere public made sense.
It still hurt though.
"Okay," sighed Nico. "You can pick where."
He followed Percy for a few blocks and into a hip looking coffee shop. A few people gave him wary looks as he passed by but no one actually said anything. They all quickly averted their eyes and went back to their cell phones and laptops. A teenager with a sword was probably not the strangest thing any of them had seen in New York by a long shot.
"Want anything?" asked Percy. He seemed to be visibly relaxing even more now that they had lots of witnesses.
"Uh..." Nico had meant to say 'no' because geeze, this was kind of an emergency situation and he really ought to get down to brass tacks with Percy and start sorting out what was going on. But he accidently found himself going "Yeah, sure. I'll have whatever you're having."
Percy wandered over to the counter as if there was nothing weird about him buying Nico coffee. And Nico sat down on an industrial galvanized stool and tried not to stare at Percy like an idiot.
He was in a coffee shop. With Percy. Alone. And Percy was buying him coffee as if it were totally a normal thing to do. What the Hades.
He needed to remember that this was another glaring sign that something was wrong and that he shouldn't enjoy it.
Because this was definitely a sign that something was wrong.
Percy came back with two cups and a brown bag full of what turned out to be sugar cookies with blue icing (a good sign, at least things weren't quite so wrong that Percy had different eating habits.)
"Hope you like sugar," said Percy, thrusting one of the cups at Nico. He couldn't really tell what was in the cup by looking because the beverage was completely buried in a mountain of whipped cream. Nico took that as promising.
"Yeah. Thanks," said Nico, taking the cup from Percy.
"Sooo," Percy gave Nico a questioning look and broke one of the cookies in half. "What gives? Are you trying to recruit me for drama club or something? That's not really my sort of thing."
"Drama...club?"
"Yeah. The sword? Looks like you might be on your way to rehearsal or something?"
"No." Nico watched Percy carefully, trying to figure out if he really was as clueless as he seemed or if it was an act.
"Then what's the deal? You're being totally weird. Is this like an Internet prank? You're filming me, aren't you?" Percy rolled his eyes.
"You really don't know me?" Nico couldn't help asking.
Percy shrugged. "I mean I've seen you in class. You're usually lurking at the back of the room though, so I don't think you've ever talked to me before. Hey, how'd you know where I lived, anyway?" A bit of the suspicion crept back into Percy's features.
"Does the name 'Riptide' mean anything to you?" Nico asked, ignoring Percy's question.
"Well, sure," said Percy. "That's the name of my sailboat. Which I also don't see how you should know about. Are you a stalker?"
Yes, admitted Nico's mind truthfully.
"No," is what he said aloud. "But I've got a problem and I'm not sure how to explain it to you without sounding totally crazy."
"So sound crazy." Percy shrugged. "I want to know what's going on. No offense, but you're being kind of creepy."
Nico bristled at that, and it was only with an extreme amount of self-control that he managed to restrain himself from his knee-jerk reaction of shadow traveling right out of there.
"What would you say if I were to tell you that your dad's a god and you ought to already know me because we've spent years fighting monsters together?" Nico deadpanned.
Percy's eyes narrowed. "I'd say that joking about my dad is super not cool," his voice held a warning tone.
"I'm not joking," said Nico seriously.
"And neither am I," replied Percy. "My dad's been dead for years and it's kind of a touchy subject. Guess you're not much of a stalker or you'd know that already."
Nico sighed in frustration. "Look," he said, trying not to rile Percy up more. "I'm sorry about that. I, uh, didn't know. Something really weird is going on. I'm not lying when I say you ought to know me. Pretty well, even. Everything's gone different suddenly and I don't know what's going on. Maybe I should try talking to Annabeth, she's usually good at figuring things out."
"Annabeth?" Percy parroted back at him.
Nico gritted his teeth. This was really getting annoying. "Yeah, Annabeth. You know, your girlfriend?"
"Wow, you really are crazy," Percy snorted at him. "Are you high or something? I don't have a girlfriend."
It was as if all the background noise in the cafe suddenly ground to a halt. It didn't actually, but Nico's attention narrowed and stilled. He couldn't possibly have heard that right.
"What? Of course you do," he said disbelievingly. "You and Annabeth have been together forever."
"Are you talking about Annabeth Chase?" Percy asked skeptically. "That Annabeth?"
Were there actually any other Annabeths that could be confused with her? He certainly had never met any others. Nico nodded.
"Annabeth is Luke's girlfriend," said Percy. "They've been together forever. Not me. Are you one of Luke's friends? I think you might be confusing me with someone else."
Nico just stared at Percy in slack jawed astonishment. "You're...single?" His voice came out kind of strangled.
"Yeah, rub it in why don't you." Percy looked kind of annoyed.
"Ah. Sorry. That's just...unexpected."
Nico's mind started racing. Percy didn't seem to know anything about being a demigod. If no one here knew anything about demigods then Luke wouldn't have had a reason to turn psychopathic. Or die. And if Luke was alive but not evil then it made perfect sense Annabeth would be with him. Holy Styx. This was going to take a while to process.
"Um." Nico was still speechless.
"Dude, are you okay?" Percy's annoyance quickly shifted to concern. "You seem really out of it. Maybe we should swing by the emergency room and get you checked out."
Nico shook his head. "No. No, that's okay. I don't think that would help with my problem. Uh."
Percy was looking at him expectantly.
"Er, you said I'm in one of your classes?"
Percy nodded.
"Do you have like...a school directory or something?"
"Yeah?"
"Would you be able to help me figure out where I live?"
Now it was Percy's turn to stare at Nico in disbelief. "You don't know where you live?"
Nico shook his head.
"Are you sure you don't want to see a doctor?" asked Percy. "Not knowing where you live is kind of serious."
"Oh there is definitely something serious going on," Nico nodded in agreement. "I just don't think it's me. Will you help or not?"
"Yeah, sure, I guess," said Percy. He pulled out a cell phone. Seeing Percy with an electronic device was totally weird and disconcerting. "What's your last name again?" he asked.
"di Angelo."
Percy spent a few moments tapping on the keyboard and scrolling. He finally handed the screen to Nico. A totally unrecognizable address was displayed under his name.
"Is that nearby?" he asked.
"No," said Percy. "That's downtown. We'll have to take the subway, but I can show you."
Percy led him to an unimpressive apartment building a few subway stops away. "This is it," he said, waving at the dingy brick facade as he took a sip of his coffee.
Nico stared at it with zero recognition.
"Got a key?" Percy asked.
Nico checked his pockets, even though he knew they'd be empty. "No." He pressed the buzzer that corresponded to his apartment number.
"Think someone will be home?" asked Percy, obviously curious.
"I hope not," muttered Nico. He was slightly worried that he was about to come face to face with another version of himself. Aside from the fact that that would be incredibly awkward, he couldn't help slightly worrying that it might cause the laws of time and space to go haywire and possibly incinerate him in an explosive paradox.
"You're locked out but you hope no one is home?" asked Percy. "Dude, you are seriously weird."
"I get that a lot," said Nico. Normally a statement like that would have put his hackles up and possibly caused him to hit Percy or at least run away. But he felt so utterly off-kilter right now that he couldn't really be offended in the way he should have been.
Nico pressed the buzzer several times but got no answer. When it seemed certain that no one was coming he went around the side of the building and jumped on top of a garbage bin.
"What are you doing?" asked Percy. "You live on the third floor! You're going to hurt yourself!"
Nico ignored him and grabbed a hold of a window ledge. It wasn't very hard for him to scale the side of the building and break a window with the hilt of his sword. He climbed in and found a light switch, and then the button that buzzed open the front door for Percy.
"Oh my god," said Percy in disbelief as he finally came through the door. "You're not just crazy. You're like psycho crazy. You're a crazy psycho ninja."
"Does that bother you?" asked Nico tiredly. He was really getting overwhelmed by the day's confusing events. He was glad to have a place to crash at least, even if he didn't recognize it whatsoever.
"Are you kidding?" said Percy, staring at the broken glass littering the floor. "This is awesome. We should have hung out sooner."
"We did hang out sooner," sighed Nico. "I told you we're already..." he usually avoided using the appropriate word, because he never really thought it was completely true. Especially considering he'd said goodbye to all that when he'd cut out of town. But what the hell. "...Friends."
"Huh," said Percy. "If you say so. Hey, wow, you have a lot of action figures."
Nico stopped and for the first time really observed the room they were standing in. There were a lot of action figures. Every Mythomagic figure he'd ever owned (and destroyed) in the past were here, intact on a bookshelf. And they weren't alone. A plethora of unrecognizable figures of various other mythological creatures and monsters surrounded them, with a colorful backsplash of comic books and game boxes. To the left of the bookcase was a selection of framed holofoil cards. Over the couch were some horror movie posters predominately featuring skeletons and zombies. The overall décor effect was embarrassingly juvenile.
Okay so there wasn't really any question about whether or not he'd found the right apartment. This definitely looked like an ensemble some other version of himself might have put together…unfortunately it was not a version of himself he especially wanted to advertise to Percy. How mortifying. He probably should have looked around first before letting Percy in.
"Uh. Yeeeeah." Nico cringed. "I was just about to redecorate."
Percy didn't seem to hear him. He was distracted staring at something on Nico's bookshelf. He pulled out a DVD box and inspected it, grinning. "Sweet!" he said, holding up the box. "I love the original Clash of the Titans. Wouldn't have pegged you for a fan of this stuff from class. We should totally watch it some time."
Nico blinked.
"Watch it together?" he asked, pretty sure he must be misunderstanding. There was no way Percy was inviting him to watch movies with him. That's not that sort of thing that would happen to Nico di Angelo.
"Yeah?" Percy said. He seemed confused by Nico's response. "Is it not cool I touched your stuff? Sorry." He hastily shoved the DVD back onto the bookshelf. "I get kind of excited when I find out other people are into mythology stuff. I'm especially a fan of Perseus stories." He grinned sheepishly.
"No it's cool," said Nico quickly. "Totally cool. You can touch my stuff." He mentally smacked himself. That had sounded way wrong. "I mean, I'd love to watch it with you. You should come over some time."
Percy beamed at him. "Awesome." He fished around for a piece of paper and scribbled a phone number and email address on it and then handed it to Nico. "Hit me up after class some day."
"Yeah." Nico frowned. "What day do we have class?"
Percy looked at him funny. "Wednesday and Friday."
"And…what day is it today?"
"Seriously?" Percy's face turned concerned again. "Are you sure you don't want to go stop by the emergency room?"
"No, I'm fine. Just remind me what day it is."
"Dude, it's Monday."
It had been Monday last time Nico had been aware as well, but you could never be too sure when the entire universe seemed completely twisted around and upside down.
"Ah, right."
"I should probably get going," said Percy. "I didn't tell my mom I was going out. You sure you're okay?"
"Totally fine." Nico assured him.
"Cool. See you around, Nico." Percy showed himself out of the apartment, leaving Nico alone and utterly bemused.
He stood for a long time simply trying to process his situation. Had he gone crazy? Maybe he was hallucinating all this. Maybe he'd been captured by some villainous something-or-other and was caught right now in a delirious trap.
Or maybe he'd been crazy his entire life and just finally snapped out of it? The thought made him very uncomfortable. His life had hardly been pleasant or desirable so far, but it was still all he knew. Everything being fake wasn't acceptable to him.
But no. He'd still been able to use his powers. That meant his memories couldn't be wrong. Something had changed. Everything had changed except for him.
Nico narrowed his assumptions down to two possibilities: Perhaps the nether held passages to more places than just the world he'd been used to traveling through. He might have accidently taken his shadow travel to a new level and entered a parallel reality. Or maybe he was still in the same world but it had been altered by magic. He might have been spared the effects due to being in the nether when it happened.
He could probably test his theories by shadow traveling again, but he still felt hesitant to do so.
What if he was in a different reality, but shadow traveling again didn't lead him back to the first one? What if he just kept going forward and ended up somewhere much worse than here? The current situation was weird but so far not bad.
If he were honest with himself it was better than not bad. It was kind of sort of awesome. Percy was single and wanted to hang out with him. That was ten kinds of amazing.
Amazing, but not a good reason to stay, Nico tried to reason with himself. Just because this reality had the potential of being better than the one he knew, didn't mean he shouldn't put things back the way they belonged if he could figure out how. He couldn't articulate a real reason but deep down he felt like he ought to make sure things went back to normal. Like he had a responsibility or something.
He would try to fix this.
…Eventually.
Surely it wouldn't hurt to just scope things out a little more thoroughly first though?
It wouldn't matter if he took his time setting things right so long as he did it eventually…right?
Yeah. He'd just take a few days to investigate and then he'd worry about sorting everything out later.
Nico felt a bit better having rationalized a plan. He swept up the broken glass on the floor and then started searching the apartment for clues.
Luckily the other version of himself who had allegedly been living here wasn't a neat freak. There were plenty of papers and messily opened envelopes scattered on the kitchen table. Nico managed to find a class schedule and some pay stubs that indicated that he apparently had a job…at some comic book store, from the looks of it. That was somewhat of a relief; he hadn't been sure how he was going to pay for this apartment if he found himself stuck here.
Even more helpful was the discovery of a laptop and cell phone. Neither of which were things he'd spent a lot of time using before, due to their incompatibility with his demigod qualities, but he had vague memories of interacting with a few when he'd been at Westover Hall. And anyway, they were pretty easy to figure out. He immediately started scouring them for information.
Hazel and Jason both appeared in the contact list on his phone.
Bianca did not.
He hadn't even realized he was hoping she'd be here until he felt the sudden sharp stab of proof that she wasn't.
He swallowed the thick lump that hadn't been in his throat a second ago.
Focus on the positive. Hazel would know who he was at least; he wouldn't have to suffer through a repeat of Percy's blank lack of recognition. That would have been unbearable with Hazel.
He wanted to call her right away just to confirm that she'd know him, but he hesitated. He wouldn't be able to see her immediately if he didn't shadow travel. If he didn't get his bearings first, talking to her might alarm her and he wouldn't be able to rush over and smooth things out in person. He should probably hold off and find out a little more about this second life of his. It's not like he'd been in contact with her in the old reality anyway. He could wait a little longer.
He called Jason instead. He seemed a safer bet for facts gathering since he was probably in visiting range.
"Yo." Jason immediately picked up. "'Sup?"
"Jason?" Nico hated the uncertainty in his voice.
"Uh yeah," said Jason. "Who were you expecting? Dr. Frank N. Furter?"
"Who?"
"What, seriously?" said Jason. "Are you kidding me? I hate that movie. You are not allowed to force me to watch that movie every single Halloween and then not laugh at my stupid reference. You owe me a laugh at that."
"What movie?" asked Nico, confused.
"What, seriously?" Jason's voice had turned even more incredulous. "Hey, Nico, are you okay?"
"No, not really," said Nico. "Do you know where I live?"
"Is this some sort of trick question?" Jason sounded worried for real now.
"No."
"Of course I know where you live. I was over there on Thursday."
"Oh good," said Nico. "Would you mind coming over now?"
"Right this second?"
"Yeah?"
"Um, okay. Sure. I'll be there in forty."
Nico hung up and replayed the conversation in his mind. Jason had acted really familiar. Way more familiar than the version of Jason he was used to would have. Apparently they were friends. Not hey-lets-go-on-a-quest-together-and-watch-each-other's-backs-because-I'd-be-kind-of-sorry-if-you-died friends, which is all he'd ever really had before. No, Jason had just talked to him like an actual friend-friend. The kind that hangs out with you not just because you need to save the world and has inside jokes and stuff.
Nico had never had one of those before. Not since he'd lost Bianca, anyway.
How weird.
He suddenly felt nervous. This Jason might have been friends with that other Nico, but maybe he wouldn't like the current model. Had he just been thrust into this place to wreck havoc and ruin his doppelganger's life?
What had happened to the other Nico, anyway?
Had they traded places?
He tried to imagine a clueless and powerless version of himself dropped into the middle of some monster mayhem and immediately felt sick. This wasn't good.
Maybe other Nico wouldn't have to worry about monsters. He might not attract them if he didn't have demigod powers. He could only hope.
The door buzzed and Nico let Jason in.
"Dude, you are totally freaking me out," said Jason the second he entered. "What the heck is up? Hey it's kind of breezy in here—" his eyes drifted to the window. "—Oh no way. Did you have a break in?"
"Sort of," said Nico. "I'm the one who broke in."
"What?" Jason looked at Nico disbelievingly. "How? This is the third floor. If you got locked out couldn't you have just called your landlord?"
"My phone was inside," said Nico, ignoring the other part of the question.
"You seem really jumpy," said Jason. "What's going on?"
"Do I seem different?" asked Nico.
"Well, yeah. As I said, you seem jumpy."
"Is that all?" asked Nico.
"Did you get a haircut or something? I never notice stuff like that." Jason shrugged.
"So I look like my normal self," Nico clarified.
"Uh, yeah. That's a pretty weird question. Why are you grilling me?"
"How well do you know me?" Nico continued to question.
"What kind of question is that?"
"I'll explain later. Just answer my questions."
"Er…okay Captain Cryptic." Jason was staring at him really strangely now. "We've known each other since middle school. I'd say that's a pretty long time, I guess I know you pretty well."
"So I met you at school?" Nico asked.
"No," said Jason. "Through our sisters. They were bffs and did all those sports together, remember?"
Nico almost stopped breathing. "You know my sister?"
Jason blanched. The expression on his face was not a good one. "Oh, Nico," he said in a low voice. "Are you having a nervous breakdown? You know she's…."
"She's dead, isn't she?" Nico spared Jason having to say it.
"Well, yeah. Why are you acting like you don't know that?"
"How'd she die?" He knew he'd probably be better off not delving too deep into this particular subject matter, but he just couldn't seem to stop himself.
Jason frowned. "Nico, you're kind of freaking me out. You know what happened. She was in a car accident with your mom."
"And mom died too, huh?" he asked with a sigh.
"Yeah."
Nico sat down on the couch and buried his face in his hands. It shouldn't bother him so much; he'd come to terms with her death quite a while ago. But it felt like getting the bad news all over again. That void lodged in his chest that never really went away began to throb.
"Argh, what's the point?" he lamented. "What's the damn point of everything being different except for that? What is the point of all this even if Bianca's still dead?!"
"…Nico?"
Nico didn't respond. He was trying not to fall apart. The stress of it all was catching up to him.
He felt the couch dip as Jason sat down next to him and put a solid hand on his shoulder. He didn't say anything for a while.
"Did you hit your head?" Jason finally broke the silence with a question.
"Maybe," Nico mumbled.
"Are you missing your memories?" Jason asked.
Nico snorted. "Only the ones from before I was ten."
"What?"
"Nothing, don't worry about it," said Nico.
"You're making me pretty worried," retorted Jason.
"You probably should be worried," agreed Nico. "The Nico you were friends with is gone. I don't know what happened to him. I'm a different Nico."
"…What?"
"I'm from a parallel reality. Or something. Haven't worked out the details yet."
"That's not funny."
"I'm not laughing."
"No, seriously Nico. This is totally not funny."
"I'm serious as the grave."
"Okay," said Jason in a voice that indicated he didn't believe one word of it, "okay then. Prove it somehow."
"Sure, no problem. Let's go outside."
He led Jason outside and into the alley. Then thought better of it and found a different alley a few blocks away. He didn't want to leave too obvious of a trail right back to his apartment.
"Watch this." With a flick of his wrist Nico tore a hole in the center of the alleyway. Dozens of rat skeletons poured out of its black depths and ran in circles before scattering back into inanimate bones.
"What…" Jason was gaping like a fish. "What…"
"Believe me now?" asked Nico, basking a bit in Jason's stupefaction.
"What…" Jason looked slightly sick. "What the hell?"
"I'm guessing you can't do anything along those lines, right?" Nico asked. "The Jason I know could summon lightning and stuff. Can you do that?"
"Of course I can't do anything like that."
"So," Nico shrugged. "Only conclusion I can draw is that I'm in the wrong place and you're looking at the wrong Nico."
Jason took another look at the hole in the ground and bones everywhere.
"…Huh." Was all he seemed capable of saying.
"You probably shouldn't tell anyone about this," added Nico.
"If you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't have made a giant hole in the middle of a public walkway," said Jason. "People are going to notice this."
"Hm, good point." Nico caused the bones to sink back into the hole before closing it back up again. All that remained of his demonstration were some cracks in the asphalt.
"Jesus Christ," muttered Jason. "Jesus H. Christ I did not just see you do what I think I just saw you do."
"I'm kind of freaked out too," Nico agreed. "Just for a different reason."
"So now what?"
"Let's go back inside."
"Yeah," agreed Jason. "Inside. Away from dead rats. Good plan. I like that plan."
Nico promptly sat back down on the couch and sighed. He was afraid to look at Jason. He'd probably just alienated the one person who was actually his real friend here. Stupid move, but he hadn't known how else to prove he was telling the truth. And he'd needed to tell someone.
"You don't have to stick around if you don't want to," Nico offered dejectedly. "I won't blame you if that scares you off."
"Pfft."
Nico's head snapped up to look at Jason as he heard him stifle a laugh.
"Dude, do you have any idea how many horror movies you've forced me to sit through?" asked Jason. "Well I guess you wouldn't know, huh? The answer is a lot. It's gonna take more than a hole and a bunch of dancing bones to scare Jason Grace. Nice try."
Nico blinked.
"I mean, you're not planning on going all Exorcist or Norman Bates on me, right?" he asked, his smile wavering faintly.
Nico shook his head.
"Good. We're cool then."
"You…you believe me?"
Jason shrugged. "I'm…not sure. I don't not believe you. That was some pretty intense shit you just showed me."
"I'm going to need your help blending in. I don't think I should tell anyone else about this."
"No," agreed Jason. "I suspect telling lots of people would be a good way to get yourself thrown in an institution or something."
"Yeah," agreed Nico. "Thanks for not freaking out."
"Eh, I don't freak out easily," said Jason. "Besides, you're always trying to shock people with random weird and creepy statements. It's kind of your thing. I'm used to it."
"I deliberately freak people out?" Nico was surprised by that. He was used to people's discomfort around him being out of his control.
"Well, you got kind of morbid after…" Jason looked at Nico warily, obviously trying to decide if mentioning his sister was too taboo or not. "…Bianca and your mom died. You started reading lots of books on death and you got really obsessed with skulls and stuff. It made people uncomfortable. And you resented them for acting like you ought to being getting over it instead of feeling sorry for your loss. So you started flaunting it to get back at them. Eventually I think it stopped being about Bianca and just turned into a you-thing. Your idea of an ice-breaker at parties is fact-dropping how many hours it takes for rigor mortis to set in, or like exactly what force of impact it takes for someone's brain to liquefy. It doesn't usually go over all that well."
"Figures," said Nico unhappily. With the realization that Jason was actually his friend here, Nico had briefly let himself hope that maybe he wasn't a creepy outcast anymore. But no. Apparently even without a godly parent to blame he couldn't escape his freakish nature. He again caught himself thinking what's the point of this then.
"So you're probably my only friend here, huh?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"Uh, well." Jason didn't seem sure how to answer that. "I'm not sure? You talk to people on the Internet a lot. I don't know how close you are to any of them. But offline you're kind of a loner."
"Why do you put up with me then?" He couldn't help asking.
"What the hell kind of question is that?" Jason looked offended. "I don't drop my friends just because they go through a goth phase. Especially not after watching them go through extreme trauma. I totally get it, dude. You're still the same Nico." Jason's brow furrowed. "Er, you were the same Nico. Now you're not? This is confusing."
"Yeah," agreed Nico. "Tell me about it." He felt kind of warm though after hearing Jason fervently defend their friendship. That was…nice.
"Aren't you friends with the other Jason?" Jason asked. "The one with lightning powers and stuff?"
"Almost," Nico admitted. "But not exactly. We weren't close."
"Oh." Jason frowned.
"The potential was there, I guess. It just didn't happen."
"That's too bad," said Jason sincerely.
"Yeah." For the first in a long time, Nico smiled. "It really is."
Jason stayed for most of the night; filling Nico in on anything he knew which might help him get along undetected. He learned that his dad was still alive and living in Washington DC, although they weren't exactly close. Hazel he was pretty close to, but she'd moved to California to work on a ranch. It was normal for them to call each other a lot, although recently she'd met someone (surprise surprise, it was Frank) so he didn't hear from her quite as often as he'd used to (a topic he sometimes complained to Jason about, although somewhat good-naturedly.) He was currently majoring in Classical Civilization and minoring in Game Design. Apparently one of his inside jokes with Jason was about how unemployable he expected to be once he graduated.
Jason didn't bring up the topic of Nico having any romantic interests and Nico was too afraid to ask how much he knew. He suspected Jason must know something in that regard, but the very fact that he didn't bring it up made Nico suspect that that other Nico wasn't very different from him in that department either. It was probably a touchy subject that Jason knew to avoid.
After some extensive searching they even managed to find the key to the apartment. Jason drew him some rough maps to show where his school and his job were.
When Jason had exhausted everything he could think to explain to Nico he turned the tables and began a barrage of questions.
"So, does everyone have superpowers where you come from?"
"No," said Nico. "Most don't. We were kind of special."
"That's so cool."
"It sounds cool. I thought it was really cool at first. But it also means that monsters attack you all the time. It gets sort of tiring."
"Monsters?" Jason's eyes widened.
"Yeah. Monsters. Like manticores and chimeras and minotaurs and stuff. We attract them."
"You attract monsters."
"Yep."
"I feel like I shouldn't believe you," said Jason slowly. "But apparently I kind of do because you just made me slightly worried. Are monsters going to start showing up here?"
"I don't know," said Nico. "That's one of the things I haven't figured out yet. I hope not."
"Is the Nico that I know getting eaten by a monster right this second?" Jason's eyes widened even more.
"I hope not," was all that Nico could say.
"Uh, what do you usually do when you get attacked by monsters?"
"Kill them with my sword."
"Oh shit," said Jason. "He's totally doomed."
"They might not attack him," Nico tried to reassure Jason. "If he doesn't have my abilities he might be invisible to them."
"I hope so. My Nico has never so much as held a sword. He's never even taken a self-defense class. He'd get shredded."
"If he's ended up where I came from, hopefully he'll run into the other demigods before he runs into any monsters. They'll protect him once they realize what's going on."
"Demigods?"
"Yeah, that's what we are," Nico confirmed. "Demigods. You too."
"That's insane. I think that is the most insane out of all the insane things you've just told me. How can you even say that with a straight face?"
"Because it's true." Nico shrugged. "Your dad is Jupiter. A.k.a. Zeus."
"No way."
"Don't get too excited about it. Jupiter's kind of an asshole."
Jason snorted. "Well that's hardly any change. So is my real dad. He skipped town before I was even born. I've never even met him."
"Where I'm from Jason has barely met Jupiter either. But I'd say that's a good thing. It's probably how you turned out nice." He cracked a half smile.
"Which god is your parent?" Jason asked.
Nico's half smile quickly dropped away. "Hades," he said with a resigned tone, bracing himself for the negative reaction he always got at that disclosure.
"Cool."
Nico regarded Jason suspiciously. "You think that's cool?"
"It's very you. I should have guessed."
"'Very me' is pretty much the opposite of cool." Nico rolled his eyes.
"Not in my opinion," said Jason easily.
Nico felt himself blushing faintly. "Shut up," he muttered.
"Are you trying to tell me I have bad taste in friends?" Jason asked with a grin.
"Your taste is very questionable." In spite of himself, his smile began to reform. It was weird how quickly Jason was putting him at ease. He was feeling more comfortable talking to this Jason than he'd ever felt around anyone back home. It was almost as if they'd actually been friends for years, and Nico wasn't just stepping in to take someone else's place.
"It's getting late," announced Jason with a yawn. "If I don't go soon the trains are going to slow down and it'll take me forever to get home. Are you going to be okay?"
Nico nodded. "I think I've got a better handle on things now."
"Good." Jason smiled. "How about I keep you company during your shift at Midtown tomorrow? I'm hardly an expert on comics but I might be able to help grease the wheels if things get sticky."
"That would be awesome." Nico was genuinely grateful.
"Alright, see you tomorrow then." Jason slapped him on the back as he got up.
"Yeah. See you tomorrow Jason."
Nico hadn't been to school since his brief stint at Westover Hall, and any schooling he'd had before that had been purged from his memory, so he was mildly nervous about showing up blind to college classes. It wasn't too bad though. The teachers didn't call on you unless you actually wanted to be called on, so all Nico had to do was keep his head down and take notes and no one paid attention to him. He also already knew a lot of the information being taught. He suspected he was probably more of a mythology expert than any of his teachers. After all, he'd actually had conversations with the ghosts of many of the historical figures they were teaching about. If anything, he was going to have to be careful not to screw up his double's grades due to the fact that some of the information in the history books was wrong. He'd need to be mindful not to override what the curriculum expected with his own superior knowledge.
Going to work was another matter.
If his job had consisted only of being a Mythomagic know-it-all, he would have been golden.
Unfortunately, Mythomagic expertise was only about 0.01% of what was expected of him. Nico hadn't read a comic book since he was 10 years old. He was utterly clueless.
He'd barely walked in the door before one of his coworkers jumped him. "Oh I'm so glad you're here!" said a girl with blue streaks in her hair. "That Josh guy is here again. The one who always wants really obscure back issues. You're better at finding them than me."
Nico had barely managed to go "Uh…" before she'd shoved him halfway across the room and he found himself face to face with a tall guy with a beard and massive ear gauges.
"Hi?" said Nico.
"Nico, man, glad to see you. Having an epic emergency here. Like ep—ic. The nephew went and spilled apple juice on my 1993 retcon of Metal Men. I'm freaking out like woah. Like no kidding dude I'm about to flip my responsometer if you know what I mean. Get it? Ha ha ha. But seriously dude, can you help a bro out?"
"Um. Maybe? Let me check." Nico turned and walked to the back of the store, hoping he looked like he knew what he was doing. He ducked behind a display case and pulled out his phone, frantically typing in what he'd thought the guy had asked for. He found an image of what the comics looked like online. Okay. Good. He knew what he was looking for. Too bad he didn't even know where the back issues was kept, let alone how the filing system here worked.
He found a door to a back room and spent a few minutes thumbing through long narrow boxes. There was no way he was going to find anything. He waited a few minutes to make sure it seemed like he'd spent enough time looking and then walked back to Josh. "I'm afraid we don't have those issues in stock," he said apologetically. "We'll have to special order them for you."
"Bummer," sighed Josh.
He followed Nico up to the counter and waited patiently while Nico awkwardly tried to make sense of the store's computer system. Eventually Nico figured out how to put in the order.
Josh had barely left when a middle school girl poked his arm. "My friend lent me her copies of Runaways," she said brightly. "I really liked it. What would you recommend I read next?"
"Um," said Nico. He nervously glanced around, scanning the nearby shelves for ideas. He'd never heard of Runaways. His eyes landed on one with a giant glowing eyeball on the cover. He had no idea what that was either but he thought it looked cool. "Here try this," he said, handing her the comic.
She looked at it skeptically. "This is like Runaways?" she asked incredulously.
"It's really good," said Nico, dodging the question.
"Are you sure?" she asked, looking a bit distastefully at the vacantly electrified eye.
"It's epic," promised Nico, taking a cue from the Josh customer.
"Oookaaay," she said. "If you say so." She bought the comic book and walked out.
"Philosophical question," said a twenty-something-year-old leaning against the counter. "Would you rather live on Earth-Two or Earth-616?"
"Um. That's…too hard to choose."
"Seriously?"
Nico was getting really tired of people asking him that particular question.
"You like Mythomagic?" he asked, hoping to distract him.
"Nah man, that game's for nerds."
"You're an idiot," snapped Nico. A few days ago he probably would have said the same thing, trying to distance himself from what he perceived to be a very immature past. But now he was feeling increasingly irritated, and besides, someone hanging out in this store had no ground to stand on flinging around labels like that.
The customer narrowed his eyes. He apparently was already familiar with Nico and had been expecting amicable banter.
"So, what'cha think of Thor's sister?" he said, changing tactics. He had a look like it was a loaded question and he expected to make Nico uncomfortable.
"Thor's sister?" Nico asked dumbly. He tried to think of what he knew about Norse mythology. It wasn't exactly his realm of expertise. He didn't remember Thor having a sister, but he wouldn't really know.
"Yeah, Angela?" The guy prodded, looking surprised that Nico hadn't immediately known what he was talking about. "From the Tenth Realm? Pretty hot, right?"
There was definitely a hint of malice in that guy's voice. Like he suspected he knew Nico's preferences and was baiting him.
Nico followed the guy's pointing finger to a poster behind the counter. A busty redhead wearing a laughably scant amount of armor towered over them in almost-naked glory.
"Shoulda made her boobs bigger, amirite?" The irritating guy winked.
"She'd last about five seconds in battle before she'd be dead," said Nico flatly.
"Dude, who cares about that?" said the guy with a sneer. "They still shoulda made her boobs bigger."
"To make her even more of a death trap?" asked Nico disapprovingly. "Her contoured chest armor would guide a glancing blade to slide straight into her heart. Dead in three seconds."
The guy (Nico had mentally tagged him as 'The douchebag') gave him a disgusted look. "Are you fucking kidding me?" He shook his head and started to wander away. Nico caught him muttering under his breath, "What'd I expect from a loser who'd rather fuck Thor?"
Nico's brain didn't really give him a chance to stop and think. Before he knew what he was doing he'd snatched a resin sword model off the wall, sprung over the counter, grabbed the guy by his shirt, spun him around and slammed the hilt of the sword into his face. There was a very satisfying crunching sound as the sword connected with his nose.
(A display case shattered, but after the fact no one could figure out what had happened. Replaying the store's security cameras showed that Nico and the customer had been nowhere near the glass.)
"Nico! What—?!" The blue haired girl's voice rang out through the suddenly silent store.
"WHAG DA FUGH." Douchebag doubled over and clamped his hands to his face, blood spreading out beneath his fingers.
Nico didn't wait to see how anyone else would react. He just dropped the fake sword and ran.
He ran for fifteen blocks before he slowed down. "Styx," he hissed to himself under scrunched up eyes. "Oh Styx. Styx. Styx." He was hyperventilating.
His phone rang. He didn't answer it.
Whoever was calling kept trying.
"Styx," he muttered again, finally resigning himself to answering the phone. His hands shook as he pulled it out of his pocket.
"Sooo," Jason's voice was obnoxiously calm and nonchalant. "I'm at the comic book store right now. Kinda noticing that you're not."
"I think I just lost Nico his job," said Nico.
"Is that why there's blood on the floor?" Jason sounded amused. What the Hera.
"You think this is a joke?" Nico practically yelled into the phone. "Are you even really his friend? I'm fucking up your friend's life and you think it's funny?!"
"Woah woah woah, calm down there compadre. Everything's gonna be fine. Where are you?"
"I don't think we share the same definition of 'fine'," muttered Nico.
"Where are you?" Jason calmly repeated.
"I don't know! Somewhere in Chinatown from the looks of it. Broadway and something-or-other. I don't know. Who cares, I'm far away from you. Leave me alone."
"Okay," said Jason. "Tell you what. Why don't you find a restaurant and get yourself a bowl of soup or something. I'll catch up."
"Don't bother," said Nico.
"Don't go anywhere," Jason countered authoritatively.
"Don't tell me what—"
Jason hung up.
"Arrgh," gritted Nico, glaring at his phone.
He considered ducking into the nearest subway stop and just going home. But what was the point? Jason would just find him there eventually.
Home? Did he seriously just think of that apartment as home already? That wasn't his home. It was someone else's. He didn't belong here. If there had ever been any doubt of that he'd just proved it spectacularly.
Although now thanks to his lack of thinking, that other him wasn't going to have his home much longer.
He couldn't even last 24 hours pretending to be a normal functional person.
He slumped against the side of a building and sank down to the sidewalk. Jason showed up quicker than Nico expected.
"Go away," he muttered, although he didn't fully mean it.
"No," said Jason, offering Nico a hand. "C'mon. Up."
Nico sighed in exasperation and let Jason drag him to his feet. Then he let Jason drag him into a restaurant and order him food.
"So what happened?" asked Jason, taking a bite of lo mien.
"I'm lousy at customer service," muttered Nico.
"I suspect there's a bit more to it than that."
"One of the customers was being a tool," Nico elaborated. "It pissed me off."
"So you broke his face?"
"He deserved it. You already know what happened? Why are you bothering me?"
"Well, Jessica went a bit hysterical when I came in and asked where you were. But I'd like to hear your side of the story. What'd he say?"
"I don't remember," lied Nico. "Who's Jessica?"
"Your manager," explained Jason. "Er, ex-manager, I guess."
"So I am fired," Nico sighed.
"Yeah, you're pretty fired."
"Great. Now I don't have a job. I'm not going to be able to pay the rent, so whenever I manage to set things right your Nico is going to be homeless. You can start hating me any minute now, you won't be the first."
"Dude, chill. No one's going to be homeless."
"Uh, last time I checked that's what happens to people who can't hold down jobs."
"Nico, your dad is loaded. He'd not going to let you lose your apartment."
"I'm not going to beg him for money."
"I'm pretty sure he's already paying for your apartment," Jason elaborated. "You didn't really think you were managing to fund an apartment in the Village on a part-time retail salary without a roommate did you?"
"How should I know?" Nico snapped. "I don't have to deal with this sort of stuff where I come from!"
"You're fine." Jason repeated. "If you want a job I'll help you find another one, it won't be that hard. But you seriously don't have to worry about it right now. Nico mainly worked there because he liked the comic book store."
"He's going to hate me when he gets back."
"I think you're already doing that job for him. He'll probably understand."
"If he's anything like me, he'll understand that he shouldn't have had higher expectations," Nico continued to gripe.
"Cut it out. Nico liked working at the comic book store. But you know what? There are other comic book stores. And I'm pretty sure that today you just turned him into a freaking legend at that one. He's going to love that. You just upped his attack points five thousand percent."
Nico snorted and rolled his eyes at Jason's attempt at a Mythomagic reference. "Like that took any effort. That jerkwad had the reflexes of a slug. Anyone could have done what I did. I just lost my temper."
"I'm pretty sure that's not true."
"Oh, I definitely lost my temper."
"Obviously. I meant it's not true anyone could have done that. Jessica described you jumping over the counter like, I quote, 'a highly caffeinated cat on steroids'."
"I was really mad."
"Wish I'd seen it."
"You probably wouldn't want to hang around me anymore if you had."
"I doubt that."
"Would your Nico have done something like that?"
Jason laughed. "No, that's pretty hard to picture. He would have silently fumed about it for hours then posted a scathing rant to the Internet that probably would have gone viral. I'd say your customer probably got off lucky. Physical injuries actually go away eventually. His reputation will probably recover."
"He's just lucky I didn't have a real sword on hand," Nico muttered.
The good-natured smile on Jason's face sobered. "Have...you killed people?" He asked like the thought hadn't even crossed his mind until now.
Nico looked up from the eggroll he'd been systematically shredding with his chopsticks. Seeing Jason looking at him like that—not quite scared per se, but definitely concerned—made him feel kind of awful. Which was weird, because he was used to people looking at him with fear in their eyes. Even the Jason he was familiar with had clearly been on edge around him more than a few times. This was nothing new.
Except it felt horribly wrong coming from this Jason. Nico regretted not keeping his mouth shut.
"Not regular people," he said, hoping Jason would actually believe him. "Not mortal humans. Only monsters and Titans and stuff."
Jason nodded but he still looked slightly more uncomfortable than he had when the conversation started.
"So," he said, trying to distract Jason from whatever uncomplimentary thoughts he was probably now harboring towards his sort-of-friend. "What do you do around here, anyway? You must have tons of free time without all the monsters interrupting."
Jason shrugged, although his expression lightened considerably. "Nothing too exciting. Games. Homework. Marathon TV shows on Netflix instead of doing said homework."
"Sounds tolerable."
"It's more than tolerable. I bet you haven't seen any of my Nico's favorite shows yet, have you?"
"I haven't really watched much TV since I was a kid," Nico admitted. "There's not very good reception in the Underworld."
"Well that needs to be remedied," announced Jason, grin reinstated. "Have any plans tonight?"
"I guess I do now."
Author Note 2: I expect I'm going to get asked why Leo isn't present in this reality. The answer is that he's on an exchange program and going to school in another country at the moment. I originally intended to work that detail into the story but it ended up just not fitting in well. He'll show up elsewhere though, because (another BoO spoiler warning) I'm assuming that he'll eventually reappear after his sojourn with Calypso after his sacrifice in the war.