Chapter One: Underworld Visit

Nico:

I held my roses tightly, letting the thorns prickle my hands as Charon's boat moved slowly along the river. Give these roses to your stepmother, Nico said his father Be as polite and courteous as you can, I don't want to have any trouble when I come back between you and Persephone. Yeah like nothing bad would end up happening, I thought in my mind, ninety-nine percent sure.

I clutched at my cloak tighter as the temperature dropped six degrees, Charon's boat drifted to the EZ Death Pass line.

"All dead get off!" Charon crowed "Also the living." I got onto my feet unsteadily, four years of visiting the underworld, and I still wasn't used to the Underworld customs. I jumped out of the boat and shadow traveled to my father's house.

Oh, if you were wondering why I didn't shadow travel earlier, it was because it was more tiring for me to teleport from the overworld to the underworld.

The palace loomed forebodingly over the Fields of Asphodel, where all the poor, cloudy minded folks were. I breathed in and exhaled.

I climbed into Persephone's garden, where I purposely ripped out all 36 of her daisy plants, I was in a pretty bad mood. Immediately, a bright flash of life greeted me, and disappeared, replacing a very furious Persephone.

"DID YOU KNOW HOW RARE THOSE DAISIES WERE? THEY WERE A RARE HYBRID OF THE ROSE AND THE SAFFRON!" Persephone shrieked. I tried my best not to shrink away and run, so instead I held my ground.

"I would blast you into chrysanthemum petals, but I'm afraid that would anger Hades very much, so instead, I have a quest for you," Persephone said picking up the limp daisies.

I held in a groan, of course there was a catch wasn't there? I couldn't just leave after delivering these flowers. I handed Persephone the roses.

"You see, there are two demigods that live in San Jose, I need you to go and retrieve them."

I crossed my arms, "You couldn't just ask a satyr to do it?"

Persephone smiled "Ah, but this pair of demigods, brother and sister, are very, very special children. I couldn't just ask a regular satyr to do it, I require a very… strong demigod to do so. None of the Seven have time to do it, and neither is that Reyna Ramirez- Arellano, so why not ask the other demigod?"

I uncrossed my arms "They're really that special, huh?"

Persephone reached her hand out, and a bag of mortal money and drachmas appeared. "This is all you need. I will teleport you to place they are and I will send you a signal that you have found the right demigods. Good luck mortal."

I took the bag of money and closed my eyes, prepared to be teleported.

"Hold on, boy." She held her hand out and I gripped it. I felt my stomach lurnch and separated into pieces. The pieces separated and felt as if they were being rushed in the wind. Suddenly, it felt as though the pixels and somehow smashed together and I felt my head smack against the ground.

I was in an alleyway, leaning against a stack of crates, nursing my injured head and touched the back of it. Ouch, a bump the size of a fist, I winced as I massaged the bump. I started to stand, when I started seeing double. Yep, I definitely have a concussion. I reached into my pocket to retrieve an ambrosia square, only to find that the ziploc had gone missing.

I looked around, trying to make sense of where I was. Then, I saw on the other side of the alleyway, an open view of the beautiful, Golden Gate Bridge. California. Maybe I could drop by Camp Jupiter and say hi to Reyna. I started towards the bridge, feeling dizzy and nauseous at the same time. Random thoughts filled my head to distract myself from the pain. Why is the Golden Gate Bridge called Golden? After all, it's red.

Thanks to my distraction, I didn't look where I was going and stepping on something that let out a crunch. I looked down and my eyes widened. It was fresh dust from a dead monster. I whipped my head around, whatever killed it was long gone. I continued to walk, but kept myself on high alert.

I continued for about six more yards, when my vision turned an ugly shade of a mixture of green and yellow. This isn't good. I slid down against the floor and breathed in and out deeply. I refused to end up dying because of a mortal wound. I'll rest until I'm ready to continue walking. I lowered my head and gingerly placed my arms underneath my head and on top of my lap. My brain felt like it was being microwaved and shaking unrestrained in my head. I relaxed my body and listened to my heartbeat.

I waited until the pain the calm and wash away and slowly and unwillingly got up. I stretched my neck, until I heard a growl. I looked down and saw a chimera laying in front of me. I backed away slowly and silently unsheathed my sword, keeping my eyes trained at its eyes. The chimera stared at me and I stared back. Clink! Both of our eyes ran down to my sword. I brought it out and held it in front of me in fighting stance.

The chimera roared and leapt at my face. I stepsided and let the chimera ran into the emptiness next to me, it made a 180 degree turn and snarled at me. It swiped at my face and knocked me into the wall behind me. I felt my bruise getting worse, and my vision turning from shades of green to yellow to paler colors.

I tried to get up, but my head hurt so badly, I couldn't even move my foot. I gritted my teeth and prepared for the worst. I felt a searing pain across my cheekbones. Red-hot sticky substance dripped down my face and felt a pain in my heart. I had never felt so helpless and vulnerable. The chimera roared its loudest and I was ready for its death blow. I clenched my hands tightly, when I heard the chimera begin to choke.

I opened my left eye, which took a lot of effort and will. Through the green, yellow and blur, I saw a boy a little older than me, he had playful brown hair, tall but I couldn't see his face. He stabbed something into the chimera's body. It let out a loud roar, and it collapsed. The chimera dissolved into little particles and the boy kicked aside the dust.

He walked over to me and gripped me on the shoulder. "Hey you, you okay?," he asked. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. "It's okay, don't talk. Can you get up? I have a place I can bring you for you to rest." He half- carried and half- supported me up and he started to walk me out of the alley. I started to get chills but sweated, my vision turned into a deeper shade of green and I collapsed.

"Is he alright?," I heard a childish voice asked.

"He'll be alright, just be quiet and let him rest," a deeper voice said.

I opened my eyes and found myself staring back at a pair of the bluest eyes I've ever seen. "He's awake," the owner of the eyes said.

"Then come here, Adara, make something for him," the other voice called out farther away. "I'll talk to him."

I sat up and surveyed the room, it was barely a room, it was just a stack of cardboard boxes constructed into a room. I sat on a makeshift bed made from small pieces of cloth crudely stitched together onto piles of newspaper, lots of newspaper. Next me was a cardboard box with a candle sitting on it, it was empty other than the box and bed.

The boy came through the doorway, he had the same feathery, brown hair as I saw before, he had downturned, brown eyes; high cheekbones; thick, gradual eyebrows and thin, bright pink lips. He had a trusting and honest look to him. He sat on the floor beside me.

The boy held out his hand and I shook it. "I'm Aidan Donaghue, who are you and how did you get here?"

I looked down at him "I'm Nico Di Angelo, and uh… how did you see the chimera?"

Aiden peered at me "Me and my sister have always seen it and all the other monsters in San Francisco. Especially that chimera, it has always been there and will always be; it's part of our curse, Hera sent it here."

My eyes widened "Woah… woah… how did you know about Greek Mythology? Well… technically not mythology."

Aiden shook his head "It's a long story, way too long to tell."

" What did you do to Hera that would actually anger her so much for her to actually send a dangerous monster to you guys herself?"

Aiden breathed out, for a moment, I thought there was a flash of anger across his face. "It isn't about me and my sister, it's our parentage."

I was still lost in the fog "What did your parents do to Hera then?"

Aiden puffed out his breath, looking even more distracted "One of them broke an oath… it's another long story, but anyways, what are you doing here?"

"Well I've come here to retrieve you and your little sister from here to a camp. The camp is called Camp Half-Blood, it's a safe haven for you guys and other kids like you. It's where Greek Mythology actually can train there and make friends, though I'm not that good at making them-" I was interrupted by another person, a small girl, entering the room.

The girl was about ten, and she was holding a tray with a bowl on top of it. She stared at us and frowned "Are you guys talking? I'll come back, but remember that the soup is getting cold…"

"No it's okay, bring it here," Aiden called back, patting the floor next to him. The girl waltzed towards the center of the room, she and her brother had matching sets of downturned eyes; high, protruding cheekbones; eyebrows; lips and a strong jawline. But the girl had blue eyes; black, feathery hair. She had a more graceful complexion to her, while her brother had a more rugged one.

"This is Adara, my little sister," Aiden said. Adara hid behind Aiden, arms wrapped around him, shyly gazing at me.

Aiden pushed the bowl towards me "Eat up, chicken noodle soup." He turned his head back and gave a confused look at Adara "Why didn't you get something heavier for Nico?"

Adara said in a hushed tone, but loud enough for me to hear "Well, I thought that since, he just woke up from a concussion, he wouldn't be very hungry, so I made something a little lighter for him to eat.

"She's smart," I said, smiling at her gently. It was the truth, I really wasn't that hungry. I spooned some in my mouth, the food was good. I drank a few more sips, when a thought occurred to me. "Wait, how can you afford food if you don't have any money?"

Aiden smiled slyly at Adara, who smiled back with a dimple on the right side of her face. She reached her hand out and took a newspaper from the bed I had been sitting on. Adara laid it flat on the ground and pointed her finger at it. She squeezed her eyelids together with concentration, and a shot of orange glow zapped the newspaper, creating fog around it. When, the fog cleared, there was a plate of blue jello in place of the newspaper.

Adara smiled wider "Dessert," and she giggled and ran towards Aiden. My mouth had probably been wide opened for quite sometime, because I began to feel sore around my jaw. I quickly closed it

"Any other tricks?" I asked.

Aiden smiled and held out his hand. He shook it and his hand burst into flames. I scrambled backwards, close to getting my lashes singed off, while both Adara and Aiden shape shifted into animals. Adara turned into a donkey and Aiden turned into an eagle. They shape shifted back and looked at me expectantly.

I started muttering under my breath "Maybe a mix between Demeter and Hephaestus, but of course, you can never be too sure." I turned to Aiden and Adara "You two might be descendants of Demeter and Hephaestus. We have to go to Camp Half-Blood to make sure though."

Aiden and Adara looked at each other and I saw an exchange of a silent conversation between them. We have to go, if we want to escape the monsters and fit in with others, not be an outcast anymore, Aiden probably thought, Nothing to lose, let's go, Adara might have said back.

They turned to me "Alright, we'll go, give us some time to pack up our things."

"Great, I'll wait here on the bed," I replied back. They left the room and I layed down on the bed and awaited for what was about to happen.