From a Truthful Word
(Three times Nico was talked about and the one time someone was there to defend him.)
So is it truth that words
Don't wound
If they're unheard?
1.
"He's the son of Hades. The last time Hades had a demon spawn, he started a world war. How would we know Di'Angelo wouldn't do the same thing? He's trouble. I heard he does all kind of drugs." Miranda folded her legs under her and blinked startling gray eyes. The book beside her fluttered.
"Ohmigods, drugs are so unattractive. But he does seem like the type. Now all he's got to do is get a couple of those tattoos."
Zara was known for her ability to spread gossip across the entire camp in mere minutes. She leaned forward on slender forearms, a smirk curling across glossed lips.
"Enough with your 'hotness' babbling. But really, he probably doesn't even know what one plus one is. Sons of Hades..ugh."
"He is kinda hot, though. Without the drugs thing, I mean. Those eyes…"
"All sons of Hades have those eyes, Zara. Get over it. Stay away from him; he's dangerous. Really." Miranda opened her book again.
"I know that, silly. But do you really think he's going to start the next world war?"
"I wouldn't put him above it."
2.
"Lord Dionysus," the satyr stumbled over his words like a newborn. "Percy Jackson tells you to get your godly ass over to the border." When he saw the Lord of Wine's face begin to turn purple, he trembled. "B-big hellhounds are attacking!"
"And?"
"The campers are fighting and-" Dionysus swore he would start dropping goat pellets any moment, by the way he was shaking. His wide eyes watched every move and flinched every time the god moved. Only him, the god thought.
"I know that, you fool! Out!" Dionysus slammed the Big House door after the quivering goat, who left a trail of fur in his path.
Someone knocked at the door. Annabeth Chase burst in, her eyes wild. Dust streaked her hair, coating the blade she furiously scrubbed with her sleeve. "Where were you, Chiron? Nico-"
She clamped her mouth shut at the sight of him.
"Yes?" Dionysus prompted brusquely, heaving a loud sigh and eying her. "Get on with it. Whatever the old horse can hear I can hear too."
Annabeth paused for another instant before she made up her mind. "Nico is injured, Lord Dionysus. We...are in need of your healing." It was strange for the Daughter of Athena to bite past her pride.
"Brats," The wine god muttered. "i swear on Father's name that if the Hades Spawn attracts any more monsters I'm feeding him to the hellhounds!" Annabeth glanced rapidly around the room, as if expecting Hades to blast her. Nothing happened. He wondered what was up-either Hades wasn't hearing him or just chose to ignore him.
"...Please, Lord Dionysus," she finally said, then bit her lip to avoid a scathing comment afterward. "Help him."
A crowd of campers were gathered near the border around the son of Hades. Smoke curled up from the grass around him, which had withered and died and was now crumbling to dust.
"Only him," Dionysus muttered as he knelt down. "Incompetent." The ground shook warningly, and Dionysus cursed under his breath. "Blasted god of the dead," he spat. "Just stating the blatant truth."
"Sir-" a Hermes camper interrupted. He sent him a withering glare and the boy shrank back into the crowd.
"It's his own fault he attracts so many monsters," Dionysus spun on his heels. "If any of you tells the spawn what I did you are all being turned into grapevines. Understand?" He narrowed his eyes at Malcolm when he started to protest. "You are being turned into a wine bottle. Got that?"
No one dared to respond.
3.
"Nico Di' Angelo was ten when he came to Camp," Grover folded his hands across his lap and twisted his fingers, chewing on his lower lip like it was a tin can. "His first monster was the-"
"Can we hear about Percy again?"
the five year old daughter of Athena waved her hand in the air, speaking without being called on. "He's interesting. Nico's boring."
Her siblings hushed her, but the mood was ruined. "Please? Can we hear about Percy?" the younger kids begged, and, inspired, the daughter of Athena began again.
Grover sighed. "What's so boring about Nico?" He asked. "He's a hero, too." There had been a time (Okay, fine, he was still scared of the son of Hades) where he had stayed away from the demigod, but if there was one thing he wasn't he wasn't boring. He almost felt bad for the kid-it was an honor to have a story told at the campfire. Even an embarrassing one.
"He didn't do much," The daughter of Athena said, huffing in the way that Annabeth used to before she met Percy. "I mean, he's a son of hades. They've never done much. Percy's a hero."
Grover wondered what Annabeth had been feeding her cabin to make them adore Percy so much.
Then he remembered that the said daughter of Athena was still working on the Argo II, though her eyes were bloodshot and bags had formed under them. That had to be enough for the cabin to respect him. Though some of them hated him for making their sister worry so much, none of them could really blame him for being taken.
"Hush, Adriana," Malcolm put his finger on her lips and looked at Grover helplessly. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Grover said. "Are you guys sure you don't want to hear about Nico?"
"Yes!" Was the too enthusiastic answer.
"Alright," he said, though he had told the story so many times that when Percy came back from...wherever he was, he would make sure to have the Son of Poseidon memorize each and every word like he had. "Perseus Jackson was…"
He couldn't help but notice that the campers clung to every word.
1.
Nico was dangerous. He was good with weapons (Everything except the bow. He was about as good with that as Percy.) and he was powerful. But that didn't mean he could defend himself against the entire Ares Cabin. Okay, so that was a lie. He could kill them all, but knocking them out was a whole different story. Percy had it easy-one wave and bam, everyone was flat on their asses.
He had to be careful who and what he summoned as if he summoned the wrong spirit, it could go nuts and run around on a killing rampage.
He didn't even remember how the fight started, just that the entire Cabin was screaming insults and running at him with swords drawn. Someone screamed the words 'Death to Hades', but shut up after the ground rumbled a warning. He thought it might have been when they'd insulted his father, or maybe when he'd called Ares a wimp.
Yeah, definitely when he called Ares a wimp.
Clarisse was with Percy, cleaning up the canoes (They were arguing the entire way), and the cabin seemed to feel that they could do whatever they wished.
So what if their wish was to trample Nico?
Currently he dangled from the arms of a beefy boy, maybe two years older than him. He wished he could summon some skeletons, maybe frighten them a little, but as a son of Hades he knew that they, while obedient, were hard to control. If he wasn't careful it could end in death, and he didn't need another god to hate him. Especially for something like the death of a son.
It was moments like these that he wondered how Percy was still alive.
So he gritted his teeth and tried not to think about the shirt that he would have to burn after this.
"Take it back," The boy demanded-Bruce? Adonis? Nico didn't even remember his name.
Nico met his glare with a steely one of his own and smirked at the way he recoiled. "We should kill this one," the boy said-yeah, definitely Bruce. His cabinmates grumbled and shifted, but no one seemed against this idea.
"But Chiron-" one of the younger ones protested. Bruce shut him up with a harsh look.
"Chiron will be glad this one's gone," He snapped. "Look at him. A son of Hades? Please. I bet your whore mother went around fucking guys all the time. Bet there was a mix up and some other guy is the result."
"Don't you dare insult my mother!"
Nico kicked Bruce as hard as he dared in the crotch. Bruce let out a startled gasp and doubled over, releasing him for a mere second. Then he snatched Nico up again. "You son of a bitch," He snarled, his face turning a strange shade of pomegranate.
"He's a traitor," Someone else screamed. "He's betrayed Percy once; might not like the punk, but at least he saved olympus. What did you do, huh, wimp?"
This 'wimp' saved your asses once, he wanted to say.
Bruce sneered and spat on the ground near Nico's feet. "Kill him!"
"Let him go!" Strangely, Clarisse was the one who showed up. Her third electric spear flashed in the sun. "You want a son of the big three to kill? Go ahead. There's one right behind me."
Percy stepped from the bushes. Confusion (Of course) flashed through his eyes before he uncapped Riptide. The entire Ares cabin backed away as if transfixed by the blade, but his cousin didn't notice.
"This punk-" Bruce gestured to Nico- "Insulted Ares!"
Percy scoffed.
"So did Percy," Clarisse shot him a glance and he shrank back. "Take it up with him." As Nico thought she might leave, she fixed him with an identical glare. "This isn't over," she said. "Ares may be a brute, but he's my dad."
Bruce dropped him on his feet. "You better hope Ares goes easy on you," he said, as a way of telling him he would be tattling to daddy.
Percy followed them the entire way back to the cabin. Later he would ask why he hadn't used his 'skeleton summoning thingy', as he called it. And Nico would reply with a calm, 'they weren't worth it.'
So maybe words still throb
When lies become common knowledge
And truth dissipates
A/N: Yeah, haven't posted anything for a long time. Midterms came up and I got caught up... Don't own PJO. Thanks for reading!