A/N: Yeah, I know I said I wasn't gonna write a third one… But you all should've known I was totally gonna write a third one.
For those of you who don't know, this is the third in a series-type-thing of oneshots, the first two being Funeral of Death and Oh Well, Oh Well. You can theoretically read this by itself, but it gives away the surprise, so I suggest reading the first two first.
Also, you guys are gonna hate me for this. I finally explained everything, and it is nothing like you all assumed it to be (mainly because I figured it out halfway through the fic). But I'm probably gonna write a fourth one, and it won't even be a oneshot, it'll be, like, a whole fic. So that should make you happy.
Anyway, here's Part 3. I hope you guys like it, and please review!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Stay
The night Nico di Angelo found out he was a son of Hades, he started making his Bucket List.
"It's unlikely that you'll survive long without me," Minos had warned him, smirking evilly over the light of the fire. "Might as well plan out your life while you still can."
Destroying Minos's very existence by killing Daedalus had not been part of the plan, but it was definitely a bonus.
When Gaea had him trapped in a jar, barely breathing and constantly inches away from death, Nico thought back to his list. The original draft, crafted by his bratty ten-year-old self, had consisted of stupid things like, "Spend a whole month living at Disney World," and "Avenge Bianca." The Disney World plan had almost worked once he'd learned to shadow travel, but even just three days eating nothing but funnel cakes and popsicles had proven to Nico that that had been a horrible idea.
And it didn't take more than a few weeks for him to realize that Bianca didn't need to be avenged.
The Bucket List wasn't updated until a year or two later, after Nico had accidentally gotten his cousin trapped in the Underworld, and had tried to save Percy only to find a Celestial Bronze sword at his throat. While most people may have seen their life flash before their eyes, Nico simply tried to think of what kind of life he had left to live.
And so, "Collect all 867 Mythomagic figurines," and "Convince Percy to forgive me," were added, and eventually crossed off, and as Nico started to mature, he began to realize that, although he could die at any time, he'd led a good life and didn't need stupid goals to fulfill it.
But now that there is a good chance he will actually be dying, he thinks again.
Italy has been a nice vacation, a good escape from the world of demigods and Percy Jackson. Nico meant to keep contact with his sister, but eventually, as monsters close in on the Vatican and Nico's life draws to a close, suddenly reporting back to Hazel doesn't seem as important.
And yet somehow, fulfilling his childish life goals does.
So he starts to multi-task. He pulls out his sword and holds it sideways in both hands, holding it horizontally over the ground and gripping hard enough to draw blood, feeling the Underworld beneath him as the undead rise to help him fight his enemies. The horde of monsters coming towards him is large enough that, even with seventy skeletons fighting (the largest number he can summon without passing out), he's going up against three enemies at once at any given time.
He defeats one, dodges another, is hit by the third and manages not to cry out in pain as he slashes with his sword and decapitates both enemies. He barely has time to assess his wound- just a slash, he'll be fine- before three more are coming at him, and he is once again forced to fight.
And as he fights, he thinks.
1. Kill all these stupid monsters, and come out of it alive.
Suddenly, he's killed three more, and the army seems to be thinning.
2. Figure out what idiot sent these monsters in the first place, and kill them too.
His skeletons are serving well, and Nico finds himself with a minute to step back and breathe, and to actually be in pain. He considers escaping, wonders why he didn't just escape in the first place, realizing it's because he's a stubborn idiot and he always has been.
The last of the monsters are now being blown to dust and Nico presses a hand against his left arm, which is bleeding semi-steadily from his wound. He feels dizzy as the blood seeps through his fingers, but he manages to pull himself together until he's sure all the enemies have been defeated.
Eventually, his senses relax and Nico decides he's as safe as he's ever going to be. His sword falls from his hand and clatters to the pavement, the skeletons sinking back into the ground. Exhausted now, Nico leans back against the Basilica and slides down onto the ground with a sigh.
Bucket List item number one: Check.
Almost immediately, the pain in his arm starts to subside, even when Nico hasn't taken the time to even think about the (scarily small amount of) ambrosia and nectar in his back pocket. Confused, he tiredly sits up enough to get a good look at the wound, and sees that it's not even a wound anymore.
Nico can still feel warm, wet blood on his hands, but the scratch on his arm has completely healed, without even a scar as evidence of its previous existence.
"What the...?" he mutters, staring at it in shock.
3. Find out what in Dad's name did that, and then learn to do it all the freaking time.
For about a second and a half, Nico thinks that maybe Hades has some sort of healing side to him, and that this is some newfound power that Nico's somehow developed, half conscious, in the middle of Vatican City.
It's not impossible. Weirder things have happened.
But then a chill seeps through him, as Nico realizes that he's being ridiculous, what is he even thinking, there's physically no way he could have subconsciously done this to himself.
Which means, of course, that someone else has done this to him.
He looks around, searching the Italian plaza half the size of Camp Half-Blood that is Vatican City, for the arrogant shine of Apollo, or the slightly less poetic, somehow more arrogant shine of Roman Apollo. He looks for his father, some kind of magic artifact in hand, or water from the River of Fire that had kept two and a half powerful demigods alive in Tartarus (Nico hadn't technically needed it, but it had made him feel more like he was fighting for his survival, and less like he was on a lovestruck quest to save the world and get Percy's approval).
For some reason, he finds himself looking for Percy.
What he finally sees is another army surrounding him- and he's already half in the shadows because there's no way he can fight right now, lack of wound or not- not of monsters this time, but of seemingly normal people, all wearing dark suits and (totally not) suspicious-looking fedoras. Nico is suddenly frozen, unable to escape, or even to move. He forces himself not to freak out because even though he can't run away, the army doesn't seem to be moving any closer.
"Did you send the monsters?" Nico asks, somehow able to talk even though he can't move.
A voice laughs, even though no one's mouth moves. Once again, Nico feels a chill run through him, as he's horridly reminded of Cupid. It's an unfamiliar voice who speaks, though.
Yes. But only so I could see how powerful you really are. Nico di Angelo. The famous son of Hades. It's good to finally meet you.
"Who are you?" Nico demands.
Someone who can help you.
Suddenly, a woman appears in front of him, and for a few minutes, Nico's pretty sure he can't breathe, but he doesn't exactly care. She's a goddess, he can tell, he's not an idiot… but she looks like his mother.
"Who are you?" he asks again.
I am Hebe, the goddess explains without moving her mouth, her voice echoing in Nico's mind. I am the goddess of youth.
That explains why she looks like Maria, but Nico still doesn't understand what she's doing there. Also, he's forced to take numbers 2 and 3 off his list, since he obviously can't kill her, and she's most likely the one who healed him.
"You said you could help me," Nico tells her. "What do I need to do?"
Hebe smiles, and somehow it's not creepy. You just need to come with me.
Nico still has blood on his hands when he goes to see Hazel, but he's healed and rested so he tries not to think about it, knowing that if he thinks about any of this for too long, he'll chicken out.
All Hebe told him was that he needed to disappear, to make sure that no one ever looked for him. That meant he needed one person he trusted, and a plan.
He needed to fake his death. And no one could know the truth.
When Hazel opens the door, he tells her everything- well, mostly everything, anyway. He explains where he's been all this time, all the things he's done. He tells her about the monster fight today, about the army of suspicious characters surrounding him. And he tells her that someone is trying to destroy him, whether it physically means his death, or just the death of everyone he loves.
"I should've been more careful. I didn't think it would matter," he tells her, gripping his sword, hating that he has to lie to his only family.
Apparently he's not bad at it because it looks like she's buying it.
"Hazel, they're coming for me," Nico lies, taking her hand. "I need your help."
"Nico, of course I'll help you," she says. "I'll do anything for you. Just tell me what to do."
Nico doesn't tell her the truth- he can't- but he tells her what she needs to know.
She tries to convince him there's another way. He's sure there is, because none of this is really necessary. But she can't know that.
"You don't understand," he whispers. "They'll find me as long as I'm alive."
You'll find me, he thinks. I just need to be alone.
She pulls him into a tight, loving hug and Nico feels really really guilty, so after a minute or two, he pulls away. "Don't tell Percy," he requests. "They could be watching him." He turns away, then hesitates, knowing he's gotta sell this or it's all over. "They could be watching you, Hazel."
He cloaks himself in shadows and watches her go back inside.
After he leaves, Hebe tells him he pulled it off.
Nico's not so sure.
Hebe is the goddess of youth, and the wife of Hercules. She understands demigods' lives, their hardships.
She knows what it's like to grow up too fast.
And she assures Nico that she can fix that. As long as he has time, alone with her. As long as his friends think he's dead, so that they won't come looking for him. By the time it really matters, they'll thank him.
Because there's really no such thing as youth. Not when you're a demigod.
Hebe tells Nico that for her plan to work, he needs to spend a few days doing what he was born to do. So she sends him back to Italy, where there have been plenty of monsters thus far, and she does that stupid goddess thing where she refuses to let him shadow-travel away, even after he's been fighting for six hours straight, is limping on one leg and still barely able to hold himself up on the other, and is seriously starting to think he should just let himself be killed so that at least everything will stop hurting.
But then the monsters disappear and Nico is able to collapse. Hebe appears in front of him and hands him a piece of paper, telling him he needs to go back to Hazel.
Nico looks at the paper and sighs. It's an invitation to his own funeral.
Luckily, Hazel's awesome and lets him crash on her couch for a few hours.
A few days later, everything's ready. Nico's friends have planned this nice, small (fake but they don't know that) funeral for him. They invite the seven, Reyna, and Thalia, as his request. They also invite Grover, and Nico doesn't know why because he's talked to Grover like once, but he doesn't question.
Nico spends the good part of an hour sitting in a coffin, using his pomegranate seed death trance to fool his friends. Hazel almost blows the whole thing by telling him, "Good luck," and Nico can swear Percy heard it, but he can't be sure, and it shouldn't really matter.
Hebe has a spell that can put his body to sleep, and send his mind somewhere else. She can give him a life where he is not a demigod, where he can actually have a childhood.
Once his friends are gone, Nico awakes, and sinks into the shadows to start his new life.
By the end of it all, it's not even an official list anymore. Nico knows he's not going to die anytime soon, but the life he's going to live will be nothing like the one he has now.
And he knows what he has to do before he starts.
He shadow-travels to China, on purpose this time, for one last visit to a place that's meant so much to him. Then he goes back to Italy and sits down to write a letter to each and every one of his friends.
He tells them each it's his suicide note. He thanks them all for being a part of his life. He tells Grover, and Thalia, and Piper, and even Reyna that he wishes he could've known them better. He tells Frank, and Leo, and Annabeth, and Jason that he knows they were just trying to be his friend, and he should've tried harder to be a friend back. He tells Hazel that she is so much more than just a replacement for Bianca, and that he just wants her to be happy.
He tells Percy that he loves him, and lets the son of Poseidon interpret that for himself.
Then Hebe finds him as he's delivering each one, and she takes him to the place where she'll hide him while he lives out his life.
And his last thought as he slips into unconsciousness is that he hopes his friends can live that life with him.
A/N: So, yeah, that was that. I hope you liked it. Please let me know what you think, and if you want me to continue the series, cause I have an idea of how to do that. So, yeah, please review!