Chapter 1: The Consequences of a Sacrifice
So, this is only my second Percy Jackson fanfiction, but I don't care, I'm posting it anyway, because that's the way I roll! xD I'm posting this mostly because I realized I needed something to write on when I was in a Percy Jackson sort of mood, so I posted this. What do you think? I haven't finished HOH yet, know Nico had a thing for Percy, but there's not going to be any romance between them. I'll write one-shots for HOH as they come.
The minute he heard they'd come back from the quest, he'd run. He'd run for them, and when he saw three where five should have sat, his smile faltered. "Hey!" Nico said brightly, hoping to diffuse the tension he had so obviously interrupted. "Where's my sister?"
Chiron gave Percy a look, as if privately thinking that the son of the sea god deserved this, whatever "this" was.
Then Percy rose from his seat and beckoned Nico forward, his green eyes sadder than when Nico had last seen them, almost like he'd witnessed the misery of a thousand nations. "Hey, Nico," he said, in a would-be casual, calm voice, but Nico wasn't tricked; this was how every person in his life had looked when they had bad news to tell him. "Let's take a walk, okay? We need to talk."
He led Nico around the camp for a few minutes, and the story started: how Bianca had sacrificed herself, how there was nothing they could do, how she wouldn't listen to them and insisted she should do it herself, because it was her fault the monster chased them in the first place.
Nico got the feeling that Percy was only talking to make him feel better, but finally, he pulled a little god figurine out of his pocket and handed it to him. "She wanted you to have this," Percy added in a hopeful note, as if he thought a stupid, mini figurine of the god of the Underworld could ever bring his sister back. It sat sternly in Nico's palm, radiating a kind of power, a kind of demand for respect, but for the first time ever, Nico didn't care enough to give it respect. He was numb, inside and out, but all he knew was that the hated thing palm and the boy standing in front of him had killed his sister.
Nico glanced down into the snow, feeling as cold and numb as it did right now. "You said you would keep her safe."
Percy gave a sharp intake of breath, as if surprised that Nico remembered, or deeply hurt that the younger boy would pull that card on him. "Nico," he began in a calming, placating voice, but Nico didn't want to hear calm. He didn't want to hear placating.
He wanted to hear screaming. He wanted vengeance.
"I tried," Percy was still talking and that wasn't okay. "But Bianca gave herself up for the rest of us. I told her not to, but she—
"YOU PROMISED!" Nico yelled, and it was then that he really lost control of the situation. "I shouldn't have trusted you! My nightmares were right!"
"What nightmares?" For the first time, Percy didn't seem wholly concerned with telling Nico more bad news. Instead, he seemed genuinely concerned for Nico himself, and there was no quicker way to piss Nico Di Angelo off than to worry about him when you weren't his big sister.
Nico threw the figurine to the ground, yelling, "I HATE YOU!"
He wasn't really sure who he was speaking to anymore; Percy Jackson, the son of the Sea God, for failing to save his sister when he said he would; the god figurine for causing his sister to pick it up; his sister, for deserting him the way she had, when she'd known he'd need her; or maybe, himself, because, if it weren't for him, Bianca would never have joined the Hunt and picked up that figurine and died anyway.