I was going through some old documents on my computer and found an old school assignment where I had to re-write a chapter from a book in a different POV, and figured that I might as well post it. Flames welcome.

Disclaimer: Obviously I don't own Percy Jackson or Nico, and I definitely don't own the dialog or plotline.

TWENTY

I GET A NEW ENEMY FOR CHRISTMAS

The pale light of dawn splashed across my face, the cool air making me shiver in my sleeping bag. Reluctantly, I sat up, shivering at the cool air that sent Goosebumps up my arms. The heater of the Hermes cabin must be on the fritz again. Joy. Groggy from another restless night, I crawled out of bed, listening as the other Hermes kids stirred, getting ready for the day.

"Good morning." Chris, one of the other new kids called over to me. Chris was a nice guy, one of the only kids who cut me any slack. I tried to give him a friendly smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. A week of nightmares hadn't left me in one of the most cheerful moods.

Glancing around the cabin, I noticed that someone was missing.

"Where are Conner and Travis?" I asked, realizing that both of our counselors' bunks were empty.

Chris shrugged. "The Big House I think. That Percy Jackson kid and his group of heroes got back about an hour ago. They called a meeting of all of the counselors; they had some big news to share or something…"

I didn't hear the rest of what he was saying because I was already out the door, running out into the cold winter morning, all traces of weariness gone from my limbs.

She's back, was all that I could think. My sister is back!

I ran all the way from the cabins to the Big House, slipping several times on icy patches of ground and landing hard on my butt. I felt almost completely numb in the frozen air, but I didn't care. My sister was back. She was safe. My dreams had been wrong. They had to have been! Even as I ran though, I couldn't completely push away the foreboding feeling in my gut.

I took the steps up the porch of the Big House two at a time and slid to a stop at the front door, knocking raucously. I didn't care if I was disturbing their stupid meeting. I wanted to see Bianca, to make sure that she was okay.

After what felt like an eternity, the door opened, and I rushed in, the sudden warmth of the room making my skin tingle. Anxiously, I looked around the room. Sure enough, all of the counselors were there, along with Chiron, Percy, and the girl that I assumed was Annabeth.

Bianca wasn't there.

"Hey!" I said, trying to fight the anxiety that threatened to make me collapse. I looked to Percy, searching his eyes. Why did he look so sad? "Where's…where's my sister?"

Dead silence filled the room. No. No it couldn't be. I stared at Percy, not daring to breathe.

"Hey, Nico," he said, getting up from his chair. I didn't like the look on his face at all. "Let's take a walk, okay? We need to talk."

We walked through almost the entire camp while he talked. I didn't say a word. I could hardly breathe. The cold air bit at my skin, but I didn't quite feel it anymore. It was if a completely different kind of cold had frozen my insides.

I listened in dead silence, not wanting to believe that it was true, even though I had felt it from the beginning. This could not be happening.

"Nico, Bianca is dead." His words stabbed my heart.

All I could do was stare at him blankly as he tried to explain away what had happened, how she had sacrificed herself to save him and the others. I should have felt sad. I should have been crying. I should have screaming that he was a lair. But all that I could feel was the ice inside me, and an overwhelming rage that coursed through my veins. Why would Bianca save them, when she knew she would die? They didn't deserve her sacrifice! Not a single one of their lives was worth hers, especially not Percy Jackson's.

"She wanted you to have this." He said, pulling out a little figurine from his pocket and placing it in my hands. I stared down at it as if it were the plague. Why would he think that I wanted the stupid thing? My sister was dead; a little plastic figurine wasn't going to bring her back.

I stopped walking. We were in the dining pavilion now, the exact spot where I had had my last conversation with Percy. Snow began to swirl around us, and the ice inside me grew colder.

"You promised you would protect her." I said, my voice so steady that it surprised me.

A look of pain crossed his face at my accusation. I didn't care, it was nothing compared to the pain he had caused me.

"Nico, I tried. But Bianca gave herself up to save the rest of us. I told her not to. But she…"

"You promised!" my hands were shaking now. I didn't want to hear his stupid excuses. My sister was dead and it was all his fault. I glowered at him, my eyes itching with tears that I refused to shed. "I shouldn't have trusted you! You lied to me! My nightmares were right!"

"Wait, what nightmares?" he asked.

Finally, something inside me snapped, and anger flared inside me. I threw the stupid statue he had given me to the ground. "I hate you!"

"She might be alive!" He protested, "I don't know for sure –"

I closed my eyes, trying to block out his words. My entire body was trembling now. "She's dead. I should have known it earlier." All of my nightmares from before flashed through my memory, and I felt my heart constrict painfully. Another image flickered in my mind, a ghostly image of Bianca standing before a group of ghostly figures in a dark, cavern like place. "She's in the Fields of Asphodel, standing before judges right now, being evaluated. I can feel it."

"What do you mean you can feel it?" Percy asked, confused.

Suddenly, four skeletons appeared behind Percy, and he drew his sword.

I gasped. "You're trying to kill me!" I screamed. "You brought these…these things!"

"No!" he protested, facing the skeletons. "I mean, yes, they followed me, but no! Nico run! They can't be destroyed."

"I don't trust you!" I screamed back. He was trying to get me killed. He killed my only sister and now he was trying to kill me too.

I watched as one of the skeletons charged Percy, and got knocked to the side by his sword. The other three went in to action. One got chopped in half, but then it began to knit itself back together. Every blow Percy made was futile. I had a fleeting thought, that if I was going to die at least he would too. He would face punishment for what he had done.

"Run Nico!" he yelled. "Get help!"

"No!" I pressed my hands to my ears, as if I could shut out the world around me. I wanted to be alone. I wanted Bianca.

The sound of the clanking of metal and knitting of bones echoed in my ears. "No!" I repeated, louder this time. "Go away!"

At those words, I felt a tugging sensation in my gut, and the ground began to rumble. A jagged crack opened up in the earth beneath the skeletal warriors' feet. Flames erupted from the tear in the marble floor, and the monsters were swallowed up by the ground before my eyes.

The world fell silent. A twenty foot crack in the floor of the pavilion was all that was left of the skeletons. I felt an odd sort of satisfaction at the sight. I felt power flowing through me.

Percy was staring at me, dumbfounded. "How did you –"

"Go away!" I screamed at him, hoping that the ground would open up and swallow him too. "I hate you! I wish you were dead!"

My own words sent a shockwave up my spine. The power of my own hatred for this guy standing in front of me, the person I had once considered a friend, stunned me a little. But I wasn't lying. I wanted Percy Jackson to die.

Suddenly, it was all too much, and the tears that I had been holding in started to fall. I turned before he could see, and ran from the pavilion, through the camp, past the cabins, not really sure where I was going, not really caring either. I wasn't going back to the Hermes cabin. I didn't want to see anyone ever again. I didn't belong in this stupid camp.

I ran deep into the woods, farther than I had ever gone before, even during capture the flag. I didn't care if I got attacked by monsters.

I was alone in the world now, completely alone. I couldn't remember anything about my mother. My Olympian parent didn't care that I existed. My sister was dead.

Gradually, I slowed my pace to a walk. The sun was completely up now. There would be people looking for me, but I wasn't going back. Now that my sister was gone there was no reason for me to stay at camp. But where would I go? I didn't have a specific home, no parents, and I doubted that I could go back to military school. I probably wouldn't even if I could.

A thought suddenly struck me then, as the memory of the skeletal warriors flashed through my mind. The Underworld. Bianca was in the Underworld. How many heroes had tried to bring back the dead before? Sure, none of them had succeeded, but surely there had to be a way to do it.

At that moment a resolve settled inside me. I was going to the Underworld. I was going to get Bianca back, and when I did, Percy Jackson was going to pay.