Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO, they belong to Rick.
NICO DI ANGELO WAS JEALOUS. He couldn't stand the fact that Annabeth and Percy were together. When Nico saw Percy at Camp Jupiter, missing his memory, he went back to Camp Half-Blood. There, he found out about Hera's scheme to unite the two camps, and how Annabeth had left to search for him. It was too good to be true. He could try to make a move on Percy, who wouldn't remember Annabeth at all. But what would Annabeth do to him when she found out? And what would happen if Percy got his memory back? Nico needed to think- or not think, for that matter. He faded into the shadows, not knowing where he would go.
The darkness stretched out before him, morphing into the artificial grassy fields of the Elysium. Nico didn't know why he had ended up here- the only reason he came here before was to talk to Bianca. But he knew Bianca wouldn't just magically reappear; she was gone, reborn into the world as some other life form. So why, then, did his shadow travel take him here?
He wandered around aimlessly, like a soul in the Fields of Asphodel. He saw spirits, the souls of heroes and those chosen by the gods, playing sports, reading, swimming- whatever they pleased to spend their time doing. He even spotted a man reading a newspaper, which made Nico curious as to what could possibly be on it since nothing interesting ever happened here. Nico was still pondering over that when he saw a face that looked vaguely familiar.
"Luke?"
Nico had met Luke before- a few times, in fact- but when Nico had known him, he was evil, and his eyes were golden and fierce looking. Without Kronos's spirit possessing him, his eyes were pale blue, and warm and comforting. He could see why Annabeth liked him. Nico had heard how Luke killed himself to defeat Kronos of course, but seeing him in person, in Elysium, still surprised him.
"Huh?" Luke asked, looking up to see Nico. "Do I know you? You don't look dead."
Nico laughed at that, a sound foreign to him. Maybe a ghost could tell the difference between the living and the dead, but between his pale olive complexion and the fact that he liked to wander the Underworld in his free time talking to ghosts made the other campers think Nico might be one. As a child of Hades, they weren't completely wrong.
"I'm Nico," he explained, "and I'm a son of Hades. I'm friends with Percy and Annabeth, and I helped them fight you when you were being possessed by Kronos."
"Oh. So… why are you here?" Luke questioned.
"I…" Nico started. "I don't know."
"Okay," he responded, "well it was nice meeting you, I guess."
He turned to leave. "Wait!" Nico shouted. "I can take you back. Death isn't holding. You could come back to life. I've already brought one of my half-sisters back." He wasn't sure why he had offered it. He barely knew Luke, but it was too late to take back the order.
"Do you mean it? I could see Annabeth again? And Thalia?"
"Yeah, I really mean it. So… you coming? Or not?"
Sorry the chapter was so short, this was my first time writing fanfics and it seemed a lot longer on Word. I'll try to make the next chapters longer.