CHAPTER ONE

NICO P.O.V

It had been officially 3 years since the death of his sister Bianca di Angelo and it was on this day in Winter when her little brother Nico di Angelo commanded the dead to create her shroud. It was a tradition he had started when he was eleven, a year after her death. Each year it was the same, a black and silver pattern with a skull and a Bow and Arrow on it.

Oh and if you're still wondering about the "Raising the dead thing," Nico is a son of the Olympian God Hades, it gives him control over the dead, like Skeleton's and Ghost's. Now, before you go "Wow cool, I wish I was a demigod" let me stop you there. A demigod has the hardest life of about anyone you meet, especially if you're the son or daughter of the death god. As soon as you're born into the world, Monster's from the depths of the underworld are trying to murder you. They can smell your blood somehow. So when they get a good whiff of you, they are trying to hunt you and kill you, before you train yourself to kill them.

Being a son of one of the most powerful Greek Gods means the monsters can smell you from miles away.

There IS a safe place for demigods, Camp Half-Blood. During Nico's brief stay there he saw some impressive things, like an actual Arena where the demigods trained or a VERY impressive lack of cabins for Minor Gods or his Father Hades.

Nico hated this fact, but that wasn't why he left.

Nico, after finishing the empty shroud to Bianca took out the stolen lighter he had gotten from some stranger and started to burn the shroud when suddenly a flash of green and blue appeared from the sky with a boom, causing Nico to drop his lighter into the snow. Nico looked up just in time though to see the falling stone pillar that appeared from the portal. He jumped away just in time to avoid getting crushed, but the shroud was not so lucky because it was crushed on impact. Days of work just gone in a flash.

Nico summoned his Stygian Iron sword from the shadows and got ready for trouble. He looked up at the portal to see it drop something from it, it looked humanoid and female. Nico thrusts his arm out and the shadows solidify underneath the figure to soften her fall and keep her from being killed.

"Hey!" Nico yelled while getting down on one knee to look closer at her. She was wearing a Black robe that covered her up, but it still wasn't enough to keep her warm. She was unconscious. Her red hair looked messy.

Unfortunately, before Nico could try to wake her up light erupted from her body, blinding the Son of Hades. When he looked back though, he almost gasped. What he saw was completely different. The Woman's body was reduced into a small form about 2 feet tall. What used to be beautiful red hair before was now a tangled mess behind her, and she also wore a strange helmet on her head, covering up her right eye.

When Nico looked over to her left eye he saw it was open and watching him.

Next thing he knew he was being shot backward by a blast of magic. Nico groaned and stood up, drawing his sword back to face the monster. He saw, yet another figure drop down from the sky, five to be exact. Each one landed on their feet around the girl. They looked like they were wearing Hawaiian masks and they walked on all fours like an ape. They girl tried to use her magic to defeat them, but they were just too relentless.

Nico ran up behind one and slashed its head off, then Shadow-Traveling beneath one and next to the monster imp. The enemy of his enemy was his friend, of course.

He stood back to back with the imp, who was floating at his height.

"You're not bad kid. But you're wearing the wrong outfit, and your hair is all wrong." She told him, like she had some kind of power over him.

"What the Hades are you talking about?" Nico demanded, rolling under one of the remaining monsters strikes. The Imp, whoever she was, was actually USING the tangled mess of hair she had to fight them off. It was like the hair was actually an extra hand. Nico stabbed a monster in the throat with his sword and turned around, only to be picked up by strange black tentacles that wrapped around his throat.

Nico gasped and spluttered as the air was slowly being squeezed from his system and his vision went hazy as the lack of hair went to his brain.

Next thing he knew, he was falling to the ground where he coughed and sucked in deep breaths of air. When Nico got enough air he looked up to see the imp floating up and down while she stared down at him with a mischievous smirk.

"Well Link? Do you not remember me?"

"Who's Link? Who are you?"

The lady suddenly looked downcast. "So, you aren't Link?"

"I am Nico di Angelo, the ghost king and son of Hades."

Suddenly the Imp smiled. Not a nice smile but once again, a mischievous one.

"So you're a son of Hades huh? You mean those wannabe gods and goddesses who think they created the world?"

Nico was feeling uncomfortable and confused at her words, so he tried to change the subject.

"You still haven't answered my question, who and what are you?" He demanded.

She laughed again in a way that made it seem like she knew why he changed the subject.

"I'm Princess Midna of the twilight people. Now do you have any more questions or are we done?"

Nico had about another billion questions to ask her but a dark chuckle stopped him. He noticed that the other stone pillars had disappeared and he summoned his sword to him again.

"It's him." Midna growled getting into what looked like a fighting stance. Nico scanned his surroundings looking for "Him".

From the portal above a dark figure appeared and floated malevolently to the ground in front of Nico, who sized him up.

The figure wore a helmet that kinda looked like a diamond shape with a birds face. There was a slit in the top that blocked the creatures face to where you couldn't see his face. He looked scrawny but it was hard to tell since his robes were so thick.

"Zant," Midna spat, "Change me back to my true form now."

"Zant" chuckled again, looking ominous as hell.

"I'm afraid I can't do that my dear Midna." He replied, his voice echoing.

Suddenly the helmet looked over to Nico, and he jumped a little. Zant chuckled again.

"So This is the new Hero? He sure doesn't look like it. Last I remember he was Blonde and wore green."

Nico had no idea what either of these two was talking about, so he just swung his sword at him, but was instantly on the ground from a blast of energy.

"Stop it Zant." Midna yelled, trying to slug him with her giant hair fist, but also being shot back by dark magic as well.

"I should be going Midna. My Master needs me."

"Who, Zant? Who is the new person whose boots you lick?" Midna yelled from her place in the snow.

"Oh you know Midna. I'm sure you remember him."

Nico sat up as he heard Midna gasp. He looked over to where she was looking ahead with wide eyes. It was look of sadness and worry.

Zant, whoever he was disappeared in a flash of Dark Magic. Nico tried to stand, but suddenly pain erupted in his chest.

"AGH!" Nico screamed, while dropping onto his back.

When he opened his eyes again Midna was holding his head up and holding a bottle to his lips.

"Come on Ghost King. Drink it."

Nico, hazy from pain, drank the bottle and was surprised of the bitter taste but was way more surprised to find how quickly it rid him of the pain in his broken rib. It was like Nectar 2.0!

"What are you?" Nico asked, pulling himself up onto his elbows.

"I told you Ghost King, I'm the princess of the twilight Midna, one of the Twili people."

When Midna saw his look of confusion she continued speaking.

"Before I can answer that I need you to answer me this." She paused letting him get the information to cross his mind. Nico nodded.

"What year is it?"

"2009." (When Nico is thirteen.)

Midna looked a little miffed but she continued her tale.

"Many millennia ago, a hero, the one I mentioned before, and I went on a quest to save this realm from destruction at the hands of Zant and his master, Ganon, a being of pure evil tried to invade this realm and claim it for their own. Link and I managed to defeat the pair with the help from Princess Zelda. We won the battle and the worlds went back to normal." Midna stated.

Nico could practically feel the "but" coming on.

"But when I returned I found that Zant had survived our attacks and he casted a spell that froze the flow of time in my realm. This spell allowed Zant to await the return of Ganon to where they could attack again and rule the world."

Nico nodded his head for the umpteenth time, "Go on."

"The spell unfroze today and Zant cursed me again, reducing me to my imp form. It's humiliating."

"How did Ganon get so much power? Is he a demigod?"

Midna laughed. "No Ghost King. He's gained his powers from the Tri-Force of Power."

"The what?" Nico questioned?

Midna rolled her eyes. Nico prepared himself for a long tale.