Nico di Angelo was sitting in the floor of a huge open room, waiting on a lawyer to return with his sister. The man had given him tiny statues and cards to play with, and he was busy pitting them against each other in two little armies. He picked up the one with the huge fork and used his statue to attack the one with the lightning bolt; but according to their cards, they had the same attack and defense, so he decided that it would be better to kill the guy surrounded by grapes.
"Pew…Pew…Pew!" He picked up the gold statue of a man with arrows and shot the little man with wings on his feet. "BUHHHHHH!" He jerked the statue downward, pulling him into a spiraling death caused by an overload of imaginary arrows.
"We're back, Nico." A deep voice came from the doorway; the lawyer was back with his sister, who looked happy. "Pick up your toys so we can go."
"There's one of them missing." Said Nico, starting to stack up the cards.
The lawyer's eyes widened for a fraction of a second, but neither of the children saw it. "What do you mean?"
"One of the gods is missing." Nico explained calmly, not at all surprised that an adult wouldn't understand. "There are only twelve hear, the other one is missing."
"What other one, Nico?" Bianca asked, genuinely confused.
"Hades. You know, the god of the dead. His statue isn't here, but he's got to have one. Him and Zeus and Poseidon all have the same attack and defense, and he can bring back soldiers form your graveyard." Nico gave all the details, standing up and sticking all the statues and cards into his black jacket pockets. "Do you have one of him?"
"I'm afraid I don't, perhaps we'll find one on the way to the academy we're going to." The lawyer said, his voice tight and uncomfortable, not that either of the di Angelo's noticed. They turned and walked out the door, following the man down a long abandoned corridor decorated with only a couple of other doors and one painting, "The Birth of Venus" that hung next to the door.
As the door swung open, the layer stiffened, feeling a cold prickle on the back of his neck. "You children get in the car, I'll be there in a moment." He swung around, and out of his own shadow stepped Hades himself, his Helm of Darkness on his head.
He slammed the door shut and turned to the lawyer, who had now assumed her true form as a fury, and slipped the helmet off of his head. "What do they know?"
"Nothing, Lord Hades. The boy was only talking about a card game." The fury said nervously, unable to look hades in the eyes.
"Why did you give him those statues, he knows that I'm missing! What if he figures something out?" Hades was furious, of all the games mortals had invented, Alecto had to select the one that focused entirely on Greek gods and culture! "If anything, and I do mean anything happens, he could easily piece this together, and once that happens, Zeus will know. They cannot know who they are."
Alecto looked up at him. "That will not happen, Lord Hades."
"No, it will not." His eyes turned three shades darker, a deeper obsidian than before. "I will not let my children die at the hands of my brother when Jackson runs free."
He vanished into a hole he created of darkness, sucking him down into the Underworld in a swirl of black light. Alecto turned back into the lawyer, still shaken up, not a common occurrence for a fury. She opened the door and went to the Mercury, where the children were sitting in the back seat; Nico was playing with his statues and trying desperately to get his sister to play with him, which she refused to do.
"Who was that man?" Nico asked, when Alecto got into the car.
"What man? What are you talking about?"
"The man in the helmet, the one who showed up when we left." Nico answered absent-mindedly.
"No one. No one you need to know."
(A/N) I don't know where this came from either, but I enjoyed writing it. I like Nico, and maybe you can tell that I like Hades too, although Poseidon is definitely my favorite Greek god, hades is second, Zeus is last. :P Please read and review.