It's short, boring, and barely edited, but at least it's a chapter. Next one will be longer and more exciting, I promise! I also apologizethat this took so long...
The rights to the Heroes of Olympus and Percy Jackson and the Olympians series belong to Rick Riordan, and the rights to Captain America and Captain America: The Winter Soldier belong to Marvel.
Hazel ran aimlessly, not knowing where she was headed. The world blurred around her, visions of tall buildings and busy streets mixing with the hot tears in her golden eyes.
At last, she came to a stop, leaning back against the nearest building. She slid to the ground, tucking her knees to her chest and allowing her head to rest upon them, her cinnamon colored curls hiding her face from the world.
"Why does the past insist on haunting me?" she murmured to herself sadly.
"Because you want it to."
Hazel looked up with a start as the familiar voice spoke. Before her stood a thin boy clad all in black, a silver skull ring glinting on his finger and a dark sword hanging from his belt.
Nico di Angelo. Her brother.
"Hey," he said, sitting down next to her. "Frank IM'ed me and told me what's up."
The daughter of Pluto sighed and let her head fall against his shoulder. "I shouldn't have left him like that."
"No, you probably shouldn't have."
"What did you mean before, when you said I wanted the past to haunt me?" asked Hazel, watching the way the light shone off of his ring, contrasting the darkness that seemed to just hang around him, and ever more so since his quest to bring the Athena Parthenos to camp.
Nico picked up a jewel that had surfaced between them and inspected it in the light for several moments before answering. "You're not ready to leave the past behind. For a while there, you'd accepted it, but seeing a ghost from your past shook your ties. Suddenly, you were sent back to the start, stumbling around blindly again. Remember how you told me that seeing Leo caused a wave of blackouts? That was because he reminded you so much of your friend, Sammy. But you figured out how the two Valdez's were connected, and the blackouts stopped, or at least for a little while. Now you just need to find out how you and Steve are connected. Figure out how he's here. Don't ask 'why'; ask 'what's next'. Trust me, it'll help."
"Nico, he saw the dracanae. Why was that?"
"Best I can figure," he said thoughtfully, "Is that he's got some godly blood in him. Probably not a recent ancestor, or he would have known by now, but maybe his great grandfather, or his great- great grandfather, or possibly even further. The gods have a lot of kids, and sometimes we do survive to adulthood, you know. He's probably a legacy of some minor god; not enough immortal blood to set monsters after him, but enough to allow him limited vision through the Mist."
Hazel sat up and looked at him. "Really?" she asked, somewhat incredulously. Nico nodded.
"Hazel!"
Both children of death turned their heads towards the voice. Frank was rounding the corner, running towards them.
"Frank…." Hazel stood, and he skidded to a halt in front of her.
"Look, Hazel, I'm really sorry. I know I'm completely useless, and all I can do is mess up, but could you forgive me?"
Hazel took his hand and held it between her fingers. "You're not useless," she said, not meeting his eyes. "You're amazing. And…I should be the one asking for forgiveness."
Frank shook his head adamantly. "No, Hazel. You're just…just stressed about…"
"I know," said the daughter of Pluto. "But I still shouldn't have–"
"No, I should have understood earlier!" he cried. "I'm really really sorry, Hazel!"
"You're both sorry," said Nico from behind Hazel. "And you're both willing to forgive, so there shouldn't be any problem. I think now you need to figure out what you're going to do about Captain America?"
"I-" started Hazel, but Nico held up a hand.
"You're not Piper. You don't have charmspeak. And the Captain has already proven that he can see through the Mist," he said. "Whether he's a legacy of the gods or just some clear-sighted mortal, your manipulation of the Mist probably just confused him more than it did change his view of events. He'll know something's going on, and he'll alert the rest of the Avengers. We don't need them on our tail."
Hazel swallowed. "So what do we do?"
"You're not suggesting we tell him, are you?" asked Frank nervously.
"No. Of course not. I think you need to alert Camp. If there's danger from mortals, then they should know about it, but we've always survived before. Talk to Chiron. Frank, you're the praetor of Camp Jupiter, so you should probably just warn Reyna."
"You think it'll be ok to just ignore him like that?" said Hazel sadly. "He was kind to me…and now there are only three of us that understand. I…part of me doesn't want him to forget."
Nico placed a hand on her shoulder. "I think it'll be fine. And if it's not–if pretending this never happened doesn't work–then you can find Captain America and explain what's going on."
Frank put a hand around her shoulders and squeezed. "Let's go, Hazel."
"Thank you, Nico," the daughter of Pluto said softly as they turned to leave. Her brother inclined his head.
"Any time."
See, I told you it was short and boring. Whatever, it was mostly filler. Hope you enjoyed it!
Hasn't Nico grown up so much?
